[Commlist] CfP Taboos in Health Communication: Stigma, Silence and Voice - Public Relations Inquiry special issue

  CALL FOR PAPERS PUBLIC RELATIONS INQUIRY SPECIAL ISSUE


  TABOOS IN HEALTH COMMUNICATION: STIGMA, SILENCE AND VOICE

Health is an important, yet challenging area of professional 
communication. With the expansion of social media, rise of alternative 
ways of treatment, civic movements and citizen’s voices entering the 
debate, health communication is used and misused for blatant 
misinformation and stigmatisation on the one hand, and debunking myths, 
breaking silences and enabling individuals to make healthier choices, on 
the other. There have been important achievements in public health and 
wellbeing across the globe – from containing tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and 
preterm birth complications, which have been amongst top global causes 
of death (WHO, 2018), to higher quality of food, health products and 
environmental standers that led to increased life expectancy of many 
populations worldwide. Yet a variety of illnesses, their conditions and 
treatments remain taboos. They are often locked in cultural norms of 
inappropriate communication such as stereotypes about agency of sexually 
transmitted diseases and in strategic designs of silence such as framing 
mandatory vaccination as abuse of human rights.

Health communication is at the forefront of the struggle for improving 
public health. It is a rich field for interdisciplinary and critical 
studies with strategic communication and public relations at its core. A 
number of areas for further exploration open up in that regard. What 
influence do public communication and health campaigns have on 
co-shaping media discourse, public knowledge and attitudes? Who are the 
primary definers of what constitutes an illness and how voice and 
silence are distributed in the public sphere? How are voice and silence 
situated in broader socio-cultural and political contexts? How are the 
health taboos associated with stigma, power, violence, coercion, 
discrimination and injustice? When does silence hurt and when does it 
protect?

In line with the interdisciplinary nature of the journal, we welcome a 
range of theoretical perspectives from a variety of disciplines, 
including public relations, media, communications, public health, 
cultural studies, anthropology, political communication, sociology, 
political science, law, languages, organizational studies, management, 
marketing, literature, philosophy and history. We would invite 
contributions on topics including, but not limited to:

·Invisible health issues which result from economic conditions such as 
austerity, unemployment and depopulation

·Taboos about mental health, self-harm and suicide

·Voices and silences around terminal illnesses, deadly diseases, 
mortality and euthanasia

·Stigmas in gender health and wellbeing for women, men as well as 
minority sexual and gender identities (LGBTIQ+)

·Silences in reproductive health, including pregnancy, parenthood, 
childlessness, infertility, miscarriages, abortions and FGM

·Voice and silence around inequalities in right to health and access to 
healthcare provision

·Stereotypes about health and wellbeing of ethnic minorities

·Information wars and myths in vaccination programmes and 
anti-vaccination movements (for humans and animals)

·(Not) talking about forgetting, from Alzheimer disease to other types 
of dementia

·Communicating and miscommunicating disability

·Public secrets about alcoholism, drug and other forms of addiction

·Health taboo issues in the workplace

·Speaking on behalf of those who cannot, from oppressed and marginalised 
groups in society to climate change victims, animal health and extinct 
species

·The power of voice and the power of silence in health structures and 
processes

We welcome research papers, conceptual papers as well as short essays 
and review papers that contribute to critical and/or new ways of 
thinking about theory, policy and practice in health and wellbeing 
communication, particularly in relation to taboos, voices and silences. 
All submissions will be blind-reviewed in line with the standard 
practice of the journal. If you have any questions regarding the special 
issue, please contact the editors Alenka Jelen-Sanchez 
((alenka.jelen /at/ stir.ac.uk) <mailto:(alenka.jelen /at/ stir.ac.uk)>) or Roumen 
Dimitrov ((roumen.dimitrov /at/ upf.edu) <mailto:(roumen.dimitrov /at/ upf.edu)>).

DEADLINES

Papers should be submitted by 15 November 2019 via the journal’s 
manuscript central submissions system. Please visit the journal website 
((https://journals.sagepub.com/home/pri) for full submission 
instructions, including information about word length, format and 
referencing style. Papers should adhere to the guidelines and risk being 
rejected if they do not. The target publication date for the special 
issue is Summer/Autumn 2020.


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