UDC

[81’42+811.111]:316.77

DOI

https://doi.org/10.37482/2687-1505-V141

Authors

Viktoriya A. Girko
nab. Aviastroiteley 30a, Voronezh, 394004, Russian Federation;
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0437-4961 e-mail: amory_13@mail.ru

Anna O. Stebletsova
N.N. Burdenko Voronezh State Medical University; ul. Studencheskaya 10, Voronezh, 394036, Russian Federation;
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4682-4887 e-mail: annastebl@mail.ru

Abstract

Health promotion discourse is a relevant object of linguistic analysis as in its texts verbal and non-verbal means of communication are used to make a pragmatic impact on the largest possible audience. This article aimed to identify the characteristic features of health promotion discourse in modern British media. The material included texts on obesity published on the official website of the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom, which represents government policy in the health sector. The study applied the methods of descriptive interpretive analysis, as well as contextual, and discourse analysis. This paper defines health promotion discourse as a communicative interaction on disease prevention issues and health awareness. In addition, it indicates the main features of media texts and their implementation in health promotion discourse. The authors found that NHS media texts on health promotion are characterized by common features of media discourse: a specific topic-based structure, an active usage of visual and graphic techniques, as well as multimodality, interactivity, and coverage of burning issues (health-related, in this case). Moreover, these texts have features inherent in media texts of online medical discourse, such as linguistic and therapeutic orientation (reflected in speech acts of advice expressed with varying degrees of categoricalness), targeted inclusiveness, and stylistic convergence (mixing of different functional styles). In addition, on the basis of the material studied, the paper identifies the following strategies specific to health promotion media texts: personal choice, developing trust in the author, and creating an image of the author as a friend. These strategies act as tools to achieve the main function of health promotion discourse, i.e. to influence the readers in order to maintain their health and prevent diseases.

For citation: Girko V.A., Stebletsova A.O. Health Promotion Discourse in Modern Media (Based on the Texts of the National Health Service, United Kingdom). Vestnik Severnogo (Arkticheskogo) federal’nogo universiteta. Ser.: Gumanitarnye i sotsial’nye nauki, 2021, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 44–52. DOI: 10.37482/2687-1505-V141

Keywords

health promotion discourse, media text, online media, multimodality of texts, interactivity of texts, linguistic and therapeutic orientation of discourse, stylistic convergence, discourse strategies of health promotion

References

1. Stebletsova A.O., Sternin I.A. Interdiskursivnost’ mediatekstov meditsinskoy profilaktiki [Interdiscourse of Media Texts on Preventive Medicine]. Kommunikativnye issledovaniya, 2019, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 794–809. DOI: 10.25513/2413-6182.2019.6(3).794-809
2. Stebletsova A.O. Metaprofessional’nyy delovoy diskurs: tipologiya i natsional’naya spetsifika [Metaprofessional Business Discourse: Typology and National Specifics]. Voronezh, 2017. 312 p.
3. “Discourse Is a Unity of Text and Communicative Situation”. Pushkin State Russian Language Institute. Available at: https://www.pushkin.institute/news/detail.php?ID=15579 (accessed: 20 November 2021) (in Russ.).
4. Savel’eva Zh.V. Diskursy mass-media i meditsiny: real’nost’ struktury i real’nost’ bez struktury [Discourses of Mass Media and Medicine: Reality of Structure and Reality Without Structure]. Vestnik Kazanskogo tekhnologicheskogo universiteta, 2010, no. 9, pp. 713–721.
5. Obesity and Overweight. World Health Organization. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight (accessed: 1 July 2021).
6. O’Keeffe A. Media and Discourse Analysis. Gee J.P., Handford M. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London, 2011, pp. 441–454.
7. Kostyashina E.A. Tematicheskoe edinstvo kak faktor organizatsii mediadiskursa [Thematic Unity as a Factor of Media Discourse Organization]. Yazyk i kul’tura, 2009, no. 3, pp. 34–40.
8. Tayupova O.I. Mediameditsinskiy diskurs kak ob”ekt lingvisticheskogo issledovaniya (na materiale sovremennoy nemetskoy zhurnal’noy periodiki) [Medical Media Discourse as an Object of Linguistic Study (Based on the Material of Modern German Magazine Periodicals)]. Rossiyskiy gumanitarnyy zhurnal, 2019, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 352–360. DOI: 10.15643/libartrus-2019.5.5
9. Tsurikova L.V. Mediadiskurs kak ob”ekt nauchnogo analiza [Media Discourse as an Object of Scientific Analysis]. Grishaeva L.I., Pastukhov A.G., Chernyshova T.V. (eds.). Mediatekst: strategii – funktsii – stil’ [Mediatext: Strategies – Functions – Style]. Orel, 2010, pp. 11–18.
10. Akhnina K.V., Kurilenko V.B. Setevoy meditsinskiy diskurs: sushchnost’, svoystva, struktura [Medical Net- Discourse: Essence, Qualities, Structure]. Vestnik Rossiyskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Ser.: Voprosy obrazovaniya: yazyki i spetsial’nost’, 2015, no. 1, pp. 76–84.
11. Issers O.S. Kommunikativnye strategii i taktiki russkoy rechi [Communicative Strategies and Tactics of Russian Speech]. Moscow, 2008. 288 p.