title: Hospital publications: is this my link to a healthier life?
abstract: Hospitals use newsletters to reach their patient base. Within these newsletters, health narratives are communicated to inspire community members to choose that hospital for their health needs. Because health narratives inform our understanding of health care delivery, I employ Bakhtin's (1984) ideas on monologic and dialogic discourse to analyze newsletters published by a major hospital network. Results indicate a monologic rather than dialogic discourse, which excludes patient's unique experiences, advances normalization of medicine, and perpetuates hierarchical power dynamics. In summary, this study suggests practical implications for practitioners producing health knowledge for consumers of health information.
authors: School of Communication Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA. kf837209@ohio.edu
authors: Kimberly
authors: K
authors: Field-Springer
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000639:trends*; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D033262:Narration; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000639:trends; D011643:Publishing / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States