Identifying the Field of Health Communication |
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| Authors: | Annegret F. Hannawa Leonarda García-Jiménez Carey Candrian Constanze Rossmann Peter J. Schulz |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Communication Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerlandannegret.hannawa@usi.ch;3. Department of Communication, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain;4. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA;5. Department of Media and Communication Science, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany;6. Institute of Communication and Health, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland |
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| 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. |
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