title: Identifying the field of health communication.
abstract: This empirical investigation addresses four paradigmatically framed research questions to illuminate the epistemological status of the field of health communication, systematically addressing the limitations of existing disciplinary introspections. A content analysis of published health communication research indicated that the millennium marked a new stage of health communication research with a visible shift onto macro-level communication of health information among nonhealth professionals. The analysis also revealed the emergence of a paradigm around this particular topic area, with its contributing scholars predominantly sharing postpositivistic thought traditions and cross-sectional survey-analytic methodologies. More interdisciplinary collaborations and meta-theoretical assessments are needed to facilitate a continued growth of this evolving paradigm, which may advance health communication scholars in their search for a disciplinary identity.
authors: a Faculty of Communication Sciences , Università della Svizzera italiana , Lugano , Switzerland.
authors: Annegret F
authors: AF
authors: Hannawa
authors: Leonarda
authors: L
authors: García-Jiménez
authors: Carey
authors: C
authors: Candrian
authors: Constanze
authors: C
authors: Rossmann
authors: Peter J
authors: PJ
authors: Schulz
mesh_terms: D036262:Empirical Research; D058015:Health Communication; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge