This distinctive collection explores the use of narratives in the social construction of wellness and illness. Narrative as an area of study in communication has been gaining popularity in recent years, and its application in the health area has become particularly strong. The emphasis of Narratives, Health, and Healing is on what the process of narrating accomplishes--how it serves in the health communication process where people define themselves and present their social and relational identities. Organized into four parts, the chapters included here examine health narratives in...

"Communication Yearbook 30" continues the tradition of publishing rich, state-of-the-discipline literature reviews. This volume offers insightful descriptions of research as well as reflections on the implications of those findings for other areas of the discipline. Editor Christina S. Beck presents a diverse, international selection of articles that highlight empirical and theoretical intersections in the communication discipline.
 
Chapters in this volume include reviews of literature on gain-framed and loss-framed messages, conversational topic, organizational rhetoric,...

Including literature reviews, this work offers descriptions of research as well as reflections on the implications of those findings for other areas of the discipline.

We follow celebrities on Twitter and Facebook, watch them on television and read about them in supermarket checkout lines. With increasingly blurred lines between private and public life, our relationship with celebrities has never been so immediate, and their personal trials are news headlines and water cooler talk. Offering the first extensive look at celebrity health sagas, this book examines the ways in which their stories become our stories, influencing public perception and framing dialog about wellness, disease and death. These private-yet-public narratives drive fund-raising, reduce...