Research in Brief Communication and Health: An Interrogation

Health is a highly prized positive value, a commodity and an industry-and also a topic of robust public and academic interest. This article aims to open a conversation about what a communications-oriented approach to health might look like. It reviews the Canadian Journal of Communication from its inception for instruction on how health-related topics have been examined by communication scholars, observing the lack of common questions and approaches when it comes to health and Canadian communication scholarship. The article suggests that alongside issues related to the 'right to health' and the 'imperative of health' (which is bound up with self-monitoring, lifestyle risks, and what I call the language of betterment), we might also important questions around promotion, packaging and embodiment.