Communicating Health (Hardcover)

"Communicating Health: A Culture-Centered Approach" provides an overview of the role of culture in the study of health communication. The book introduces readers to the concept of culture and addresses the ways in which culture shapes, constructs, transforms and interacts with communication processes related to a variety of health experiences, interactions, and outcomes.The culture-centered approach offered in this book argues that communication theorizing ought to locate culture at the center of the communication process such that the theories are contextually embedded and co-constructed through dialogue with the cultural participants. The locally situated meanings of health are simultaneously connected with structural processes within which the local culture is embedded. The discussions in the book situate health communication within local contexts by looking at identities, meanings and experiences of health among community members, and locating them in the realm of the structures that constitute health. The culture-centered approach foregrounds the voices of cultural members in the co-constructions of health risks and in the articulation of health problems facing communities. The theoretical discussion of the culture-centered approach offers the foundation for interrogating the practice of health communication in intrapersonal, interpersonal, mass mediated, organizational, societal and policy contexts. Each chapter ties in the discussion of culture to questions of marginalization and access to healthcare. Ultimately, the book provides theoretical and practical suggestions for developing a culture-centered understanding of health communication processes.