Critical Health Communication : Theory and Practice

Abstract

This book offers strong rationales for adopting a critical view of health communication by demonstrating how theories and critical practices can be enriched by foregrounding issues of power, politics, and culture. In health communication, critical approaches highlight the role of communication in constituting, reinforcing, and resisting inequitable power relations that underlie the sociocultural and structural barriers to well-being. This book highlights the theoretical and practical contributions of critical health communication to allow readers to gain in-depth understanding of the tools and methods required to conduct critical research. It includes a broad array of approaches to health communication scholarship such as rhetorical, feminist, anti-racist, and intersectional perspectives. Chapters present research from a variety of international and local contexts addressing medical and public health challenges and center issues of power, resistance, voice, and social change from marginalized perspectives. Outlining the centrality of critical approaches to theorizing and practicing health communication in more equitable, ethical, and effective ways, this book will be of interest to scholars and graduate students in health communication, critical and cultural communication, as well as other health-related courses. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.