Are DTC TV Ads "Scaring" Patients?

A recent BBC article (“Medicine Information Leaflets ‘Too Scary’ says Experts”) illustrated how word choice and framing of side effects on drug inserts may sway patients towards not taking their medication. But why? The Academy of Medical Sciences report, which the BBC quotes, shares that patients may be confused, anxious, and/or off-put by the current…

Ling 101: Power and Agency

Welcome back! At this point, we’ve covered a good amount of ground on the basics of healthcare discourse analysis. Namely we’ve talked about how linguistics: is integral to good market understanding, can shape understanding with footing and alignment has rules that we can break or follow But what about power and control?

Ling 101: How to Decode Conversational Roles

Last month we shared with you how certain linguistic methodologies can provide meaningful content to shape your marketing decisions. Now that you know how linguistics can be applied, let’s dive deeper and talk more about the first big idea of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis at it’s core can be defined as studying the way language is used in context.  Instead…