Archive for 2017

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[ecrea] Conference: Chronic Disease & Language #healthsci17

Tue Nov 14 09:15:47 GMT 2017





You can still book your place for #healthsci17 - “Chronic Disease and Language: Understanding Social and Linguistic Representations to Improve Treatment and Prevention” by 19 NOVEMBER, NOON (GMT) at the following link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chronic-disease-and-language-tickets-38887821521

#healthsci17 is the annual workshop of the “Health & Science Communication” Special Interest Group of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. The workshop will be held on 29 November 2017, hosted by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University. Chronic Disease and Language: Understanding Social and Linguistic Representations to Improve Treatment and Prevention

‘Chronic disease’, ‘long-term condition’ and ‘non-communicable disease’ are often used interchangeably to refer to conditions that can be managed, but not cured. Despite the synonymous use, these terms frame differently the conditions they describe – foregrounding the duration of the disease or its mechanism of operation. This ‘what’s in a name’ example is a good if crude illustration of how language can shape our thinking about chronic disease. As chronic diseases become more widespread among populations worldwide, they are also increasingly the target of government initiatives for treatment and prevention and therefore, increasingly the focus of text and talk. From a discourse studies perspective, texts do not simply describe the reality of a chronic condition. By drawing on some types of knowledge and not others, incorporating the voices of some actors but not others and highlighting certain aspects of a condition and not others, they help construct the reality of that condition. Research has revealed how health-related information leaflets, media articles, policy documents and more recently, social marketing campaign advertisements explicitly or implicitly prioritise certain causes, propose solutions, allocate responsibility and ultimately, construct particular understandings of chronic diseases and what needs to be done about them. A finding that runs through much of the literature is about the prevalence of an individualised discourse and/or a victim-blaming style and stigmatisation of the affected individuals.

In recent years, the focus on early intervention and prevention of chronic diseases has intensified in parallel with a growing understanding that solving chronic disease problems would require multi- or trans-disciplinary research and taking a much broader view of the drivers of health beyond the individual level. This workshop brings together researchers from the fields of the social sciences, humanities and beyond to share findings relating to the key challenges and opportunities that representations pose to treatment and prevention targets.

Keynotes include:

*Dr Shona Hilton: The Importance of Stakeholder Involvement and Media Framing in Global Health Policy Debates about NCDs

For the first time in history non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now pose a greater global health burden than communicable infectious diseases and the media play a crucial role in framing public and policy debates about the causes of, and solutions to, NCDs. While the literature suggests that media debates should be a key concern for those interested in understanding public health policy processes, as yet there has been only limited research in this area. In politically-contested health policy debates, stakeholders often seek to engage the media to communicate arguments to the public for or against specific policy initiatives, consistent with their underlying interests. This seminar presents the findings from a scoping review on media representations of industries that contribute to NCD risk and provides evidence from the current sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxation debate to highlight how stakeholders engage with the media to shape public and political opinion. This complex inter-dependency between the strategies used by stakeholders to influence global health debates and framing of evidence in media policy debates is poorly understood yet is crucial to understand if we are to tackle how the global producers and marketers of unhealthy commodities employ the media to directly lobby the public and set the policy agenda.

*Prof Rusi Jaspal: Wonder Drug or Party Drug? Representations and Perceptions of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis

In the era of antiretroviral therapy, HIV is now considered a manageable chronic illness. Yet, it remains a stigmatised and feared health condition. Over the last decade, HIV incidence has been rising steadily among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This has led to novel ways of approaching HIV prevention beyond the use of condoms. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a novel bio-medical HIV prevention tool, which has been discussed in scientific, social and political domains. It is highly effective if used properly and has in fact contributed to significant drop in new HIV diagnoses among MSM in London. Despite the proven effectiveness of PrEP, opponents argue that the HIV prevention drug poses a number of risks, which has induced scepticism in groups that could benefit from PrEP. Focusing on the linguistic, discursive and social aspects of debates around PrEP, this keynote lecture explores (1) coverage of PrEP in the UK print media, and (2) how a group of ethnically diverse HIV-negative MSM perceive PrEP as a potential means of protecting themselves from HIV infection, and how a group of HIV-positive MSM perceive PrEP as a means of reducing social stigma surrounding HIV. The future of HIV prevention among gay, bisexual and other MSM is discussed in view of these research findings. Moreover, the social and psychological implications of social representations of PrEP are discussed in relation to sexual identity, behaviour and health among gay/bisexual men. It is argued that language is central to effective HIV prevention.

Visit our website for the full programme and book of abstracts: http://www.baal-health.uk/

Find us on Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/Health-and-Science-Communication-SIG-100170477003151/

On Twitter: follow #healthsci17 to keep up to date with all event news
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