Communicating Health
COMT 492/592
Health communication
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Symbolic processes by which
people, individually and
collectively understand, shape
and accommodate to health and
illness.
Health Communication
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Involves a wide range of messages
pertaining to health maintenance,
health promotion, disease
prevention, treatment.
The messages vary with respect to:
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Situations
Structures
Roles
Relationships
Identities
Goals
Social influence
Basic definitions
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Healthy
Unhealthy
We make sense of symbols with
mixed messages:
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Meanings vary depending on who
you talk to, what media you see,
hear or read, what you think about
when you go to the gym or a
restaurant, listen to a sick relative,
etc.
Theorizing
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We are constantly theorizing –
searching for explanations –
from the stories we tell and hear
about everyday health practices.
Narrative perspective
Stories are a way of learning
 How we negotiate, maintain and
rationalize healthy and unhealthy
behaviors

Narrating Life

Ways of talking about problems
determine amount of power a
person has
Victim vs. survivor
 Public telling gives voice to
storyteller
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Representing Health
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“Health”
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Eradication or significant decrease in
diseases globally
Ideals of providing adequate shelter,
food, and medical care for all citizens
“Disease”
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Diagnosis, naming the problem, has
symbolic importance to the individual

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E.g., concept of “date rape” empowered
many women to go public
E.g., labeling someone as “sick” can
disempower them too
Medicalization
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Diagnosis can lead to aggressive
measures
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E.g., menopause as “estrogendeficiency” called for synthetic hormone
use that brought with it serious
complications (breast cancer).
Pathologizing natural processes

E.g., homosexuality was listed as a
diagnostic category in the APA manual
until 1973.
Health beyond medicine

Become an active participant
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Interact with peers around health

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Individual health needs may go beyond
current organizational structures
Public arena discussions form basis
of policy
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Conduct own health communication
assessment
Allows public scrutiny
Public campaigns can move health
beyond medicine
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Public moral argument
Overview
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Identities
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Embedded in and imposed on our ideas
of how the world is, how we lives our
lives, including health.
Influenced by several communicative
levels.
Stories
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Told to frame, understand, confront,
manage and change identities
Important to address constraints on
voice, stigma, stereotypes and
suppression