The intersections between identity and health communication are complex and dynamic, yet few studies employ a critical-empirical research strategy to understand how these factors affect patient experiences. And although other disciplines have examined lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ)-specific issues surrounding identity and health care, there is a gap in communication studies literature on the topic. The present study examines how LGBTQ patients experience the language and structure of medical intake forms by analyzing both existing forms and patient survey responses. Relying on a queer theory framework, we illustrate how intake forms can foreclose on LGBTQ identity with heteronormative assumptions about sexuality, gender, and relationships. We also offer recommendations for creating queer-friendly intake forms and avoiding heteronormativity in health communication research. Overall, we argue that researchers must use reflexive methodology in considering how identity categories can both limit and assist LGBTQ patients.
This essay critically examines Hillary Clinton’s (Hillary) TIME Magazine coverage, from the first cover image as a First Lady in 1992, to the most recent cover as a 2016 presidential hopeful, and each of the focal images throughout TIME’s 20-year coverage. Drawing from political and visual rhetoric as a primary lens, the analysis of each cover will investigate two primary texts: Hillary’s image as coded by a social semiotic approach and the editorial reporting of TIME’s senior writers. Each of Hillary’s cover appearances and corresponding articles are then rhetorically analyzed with a focus on how her mediated image is perpetuated as a threat to political hegemony. Through these themes, we argue that the reporting and image construction of Hillary reinforces normative and status quo-journalism, and ultimately celebrates Hillary as a diplomat, senator, and wife, while disciplining her candidate image as a threat to the American presidency. After a thoughtful dialogue about each cover and the broader implications for political women as executive leaders, this article ultimately advances an argument for a new epistemological and ideological understanding of reporting for political women.
In 2008, Nielsen Media Research reported that between 50 million and 70 million people watched each of the presidential and vice presidential debates. Although the debates are some of the most-watched political moments, the influence of the context of debate viewing has received little attention. This study focuses on the reactions of younger Americans to watching the debates in different contexts. In particular, the authors consider the influence of three contexts on political cynicism and reactions to the debates: playing bingo, taking notes on an issue grid, and simply viewing a debate. After viewing a debate in these contexts, participants were asked to create a hypothetical headline about the debate and to answer questions about cynicism. Although there were no significant differences between conditions in terms of writing headlines containing a strategic or cynical interpretation of the debate, the language participants used documents a propensity to view the debates through a strategic lens. Furthermore, the results suggest that including an activity can help to reduce participants’ focus on the debate winner and that debate viewing is helpful for reducing cynicism.
This article critically examines the visual and mediated communication of vice presidential candidate and now vice president, Kamala Harris, and Harris’s political surrogates leading up to the 2020 presidential election. As a launching point, we build on our 2016 election retrospective, where we analyzed “Hillary Through Time” and found that political women were not only primed to “take advantage of the democratization of visual rhetorical presentations” but also, political women could challenge normative coverage “through a mediated image of her own making.” Fast forward 4 years, we offer such agency through the visual communication of Kamala’s campaign-mediated image. Drawing from the philosophy of Susanne K. Langer, we argue that Kamala Harris intentionally advances “artful political communication” as a method for challenging gendered aesthetic tropes of political women; ultimately shifting the narrative of “2 for the price of 1” from deferential to empowered.
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