Counterfeit Medicine in China
A podcast aiming to increase awareness about the dangers of counterfeit medicine and what can be done to combat it.
China is one of the world’s largest producers of pharmaceuticals, but the country is also one of the largest producers of counterfeit medicine. Counterfeit medicine includes any medical product that falsifies its identity, manufacturing source, or distribution history. This podcast, made for an audience of Chinese citizens, shares facts about the harmful effects of counterfeit medicine and what can be done from an individual and government perspective to combat this problem.
Artist
Kelsey Ge (2020)
Artist Lens
The purpose of this podcast is to shed light on the prevalence and effects of counterfeit medicine in China, both to increase awareness and inspire listeners to place pressure on local governments to allocate resources towards this issue. The intended audience are rural populations, who tend to have lower incomes and are at greater risk of fraudulent medicine targeting. This is reflected by some of the language in the podcast describing lower insurance rates and the need to protect listeners’ family and community. The reason I decided to focus on this audience is because local governments in rural areas have the most responsibility to protect these vulnerable populations, and because those who are unaware of the consequences of falsified medicine tend to be concentrated in these areas.
A secondary audience is the Chinese population as a whole, including those in urban areas or who are wealthier. I address this population through country-inclusive diction such as “our country,” since they also have responsibility as global citizens to understand the role of China in this global epidemic. To reflect the societal conditions of China, which tend to be more pro-state than American opinion, I used patriotic language to engage the viewers. I decided to tackle this issue using a podcast because the topic is more serious and requires a nuanced understanding in order to be actionable; the format of a podcast allows this academic information to be more accessible to wider audiences. Since this episode in particular focuses on introducing the problem and the ways citizens can take action, it touches only briefly upon the socio-cultural stigmas that were mentioned in my briefing paper since this stigmatization is a deep-rooted and complex issue of its own.
Media
Audio