This book explores the unique contribution that critical communication studies can bring to our understanding of health. It covers several broad themes: representing and mediating health; marketing and promoting health, co-producing health; and managing health crises and risks. Chapters speak to moral and social regulation through health communication, technologies of health, healthism and governmentality. They engage with historical and contemporary issues, offering readers theoretically grounded perspectives. At base, the book explores what a critical communication approach to health might look like, revealing in important―and sometimes surprising―ways how communication sits at the centre of understanding how health is constructed, contested, and made meaningful.
Author(s): Charlene Elliott, Josh Greenberg
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 369
City: Cham
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
Communication and Health: An Introduction
Introduction
Situating Communication and Health
References
Representing Health
Decentring Representation: Media Frames and Communicating Health
Introduction
Representing Health
Reporting Health Risk
Message Control: Health Risk Communication as Public Relations
Public Perceptions of Health Risk
Conclusion
References
No Way to Live: Fat Bodies on Reality Television
Reality Television a Biopedagogy
Pathologizing Fatness as ‘Obesity’
Framing Fatness on My 600lb Life
No Way to Live: The Impact of Anti-Fat Reality TV
References
“Who Wants to Live Forever? You Want to Live Well”: The Appeal to Health in Coverage of Anti-Ageing Science and Medicine
Healthy Ageing and the Contested Terrain of Age Intervention
Methodology
Old and Sick: Constructing the Health-Youth Link
The “Good Life” and the Unliveable End: Valuations of a Life Worth Living
Re-framing Health in Old Age
References
Feeling by Looking: Public Health Handwashing Posters as Emplaced Vital Media
Posters as Public Health Medium
Defining Posters
Researching Handwashing Posters
The Petri Dish Posters as Emplaced Vital Media
Emplacement
Vitality
Conclusion
References
Marketing and Promoting Health
“Great Taste! Fun for Kids!”: Marketing Vitamins for Children
“Yabba Dabba Doo They’re Good To Chew”: Health and the History of Children’s Vitamins
Health in a Bottle: Marketing Techniques on Packages of Children’s Vitamins, Minerals, and Supplements
Consumption and Enculturation: When Consumer (and Media) Consumption Meets Health
Supplement(al) Trans-Toying: Entertaining the Child and Looking Past the Label
Conclusion
References
Imperial Tobacco Canada and Health Reassurance Cigarette Marketing During the 1970s
Historical Background
Conceptualizing Mild and Light Cigarettes
“Year of the Lights”
Consumer Research and “Healthier” Cigarettes
Compensation
Conclusion
References
Influencing Diet: Social Media, Micro-Celebrity, Food, and Health
The Problem of Influencer Effects: Reach and Messaging
The Promotional Power of Influencer Marketing
The Social Media Influencer as Micro-Celebrity
Influencer Effects in Current Literature: Identifying Impacts Around Food and Health
The Problem(s) of Measuring Influencer Effects
Representation
Promotion
Authenticity
Conclusion
References
Marketing Mental Health: Critical Reflections on Literacy, Branding and Anti-Stigma Campaigns
Introduction
Biomediatization, Cultural Studies of Psychiatry and the Mental Health ‘Field of Contention’
Problematizing ‘Mental Health Literacy’ and Mental Health First Aid
Marketing Mental Health: Branding, Anti-Stigma Campaigns and ‘Benevolent Othering’
Interdisciplinary Dialogue Towards ‘Epistemic Justice’
References
Co-Producing Health
Co-Authoring the “Person” in Person-Centred Care: A Critical Narrative Analysis of Patient Stories on Healthcare Organization Websites
Introduction
Methodology
Results
Defining Patient Stories
Narrating a Technoscientific Identity
Co-Authoring the Patient in Patient-Centred Care
Concluding Remarks
References
The Branding of Movember and the Co-production of Men’s Health
Introduction
Charities as Brand Assemblages
The Moustache as Body Project
Movember and Social Media
Movember and the Co-production of Men’s Health
Conclusion
References
The Social Construction of ‘Good Health’
Medical and Socio-Cultural Performances of ‘Good Health’
Social Construction and Co-Construction
Idealized Dietary Consumption
What Else is Left Out?
Reductionism, Race, and the West
Conclusion
References
Managing Health: Troubling Surveillance and Communicating Risk
“You Don’t Own a FitBit, the FitBit Owns You”: A Taxonomy of Privacy Attitudes in the Context of Self-Quantification
Introduction: Self-Quantification for Health and Wellness
State of Knowledge: What Do We Know and Why Should We Care?
State of Knowledge: Privacy Attitudes
Privacy Attitudes and Everyday Life
Fair Deal Rationale and No Embarrassment
Self of No Importance to Institutions
Active Concern and Resistance
Discussion: Privacy as Unease
Conclusion
References
Cases and Traces, Platforms and Publics: Big Data and Health Surveillance
Introduction
Turning to Big Data in Contemporary Public Health Surveillance
Data Inequities: Justice, Privacy, and Ethics
Cases and Traces, Platforms and Publics
Conclusion
References
Challenges in Vaccine Communication
Vaccine Communication and Promotion Efforts
Vaccine Terminology, Discourses, and Rhetoric
Vaccine Attitudes
Vaccine Communication Research
Vaccine Communication by Healthcare Providers
Media Studies and Vaccine Communication
Risk Communication
Ethical Frameworks for Vaccine Communication
Information and Communication Ethics
Public Health Communication Ethics
Ethical Considerations for Vaccine Communication
Conclusion
References
Critical Communication Studies and COVID-19: Mediation, Discourse, and Masks
Introduction
COVID-19 Challenges
Communication and Health: COVID-19 as Discourse
Communication and COVID-19: Discourse on Masks
Masks and Scientific Uncertainty
Masks and Cultural Norms
Resistance to Masks and Misinformation
Masks and Identity
Conclusion
References
Index
