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Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis: Investigating Representations of Knowledge and Knowledge-Related Subjectivities in an Online Forum on HPV Vaccination

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Analysing Health Communication

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Abstract

Poststructuralist discourse analysis (PDA) that draws on Foucauldian discourse theory enables researchers to analyse cultural aspects of health communication, as it makes it possible to identify the discourses and subject positions available to and used by those who communicate about health-related topics. This chapter presents and illustrates the methods of statement function analysis to analyse discourses, and subject position analysis to analyse the identities associated with discursive statements, using data from an online forum where HPV vaccination was debated. The findings show that constructing the basis for knowing is central in the posts, with the diverging perspectives legitimized in various ways. The chapter ends with a discussion of the usefulness of employing poststructuralist discourse analysis to map out broader cultural meanings in health communication texts when values are at the heart of the matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Antoinette Fage-Butler

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  1. Antoinette Fage-Butler
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Correspondence to Antoinette Fage-Butler .

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  1. Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Gavin Brookes

  2. School of English, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Daniel Hunt

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Fage-Butler, A. (2021). Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis: Investigating Representations of Knowledge and Knowledge-Related Subjectivities in an Online Forum on HPV Vaccination. In: Brookes, G., Hunt, D. (eds) Analysing Health Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68184-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68184-5_7

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