[ecrea] Conference: Chronic Disease & Language #healthsci17

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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