Rice U. expert available to comment on Ebola outbreak and movie representations of viruses

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Rice University expert available to comment on Ebola outbreak and movie representations of viruses  

HOUSTON – (Oct. 23, 2014) – As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and fears over the virus’ spread to the United States continue to receive media attention, a Rice University professor said the public’s perception of how viruses spread is greatly influenced by Hollywood movie portrayals of diseases and contagion. But she noted that Hollywood representations are themselves greatly influenced by public health media and have been since World War I.

The Ebola virus at 108,000 magnification. Credit: thinkstockphotos.com/Rice University

“We often assume that Hollywood movies are a source of misinformation about science, but those films don’t just pull their imagery out of thin air. Instead, they are often influenced by visualization techniques from science and medicine, and Hollywood movies also become sources of inspiration for those fields as well,” said Kirsten Ostherr, a professor of English and author of the 2005 book “Cinematic Prophylaxis,” which explores Ebola and public health films about contagion. “For example, the idea that national borders can act as a bulwark against disease is a common movie trope in public health and Hollywood films dating from the 1920s and continuing to the present.”

Ostherr, who has a Ph.D. in media studies and a master’s degree in public health, is available to discuss her insights with the media.

“In an effort to visualize the spread of disease, filmmakers often use a line traveling across a map — crossing borders and moving from a virus’s point of origin to America,” she said. “The portrayal of the way disease travels is motivated in part by a human need to take something that is invisible but terrifying — the spread of a lethal virus — and make it concrete and comprehensible.”

Ostherr teaches film and media studies, with a focus on historical and contemporary visualizations of health and disease in photography, film, television, animation, advertising, medical imaging and Web-based media.

To schedule an interview with Ostherr, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

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Follow Kirsten Ostherr via Twitter @KirstenOstherr.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Ostherr bio: http://english.rice.edu/ostherr.aspx

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,920 undergraduates and 2,567 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just over 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life by the Princeton Review and for best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go here.