Graduation Year
2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Degree Granting Department
English
Major Professor
Meredith Johnson, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Joseph Moxley, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Nathan Johnson, Ph.D.
Keywords
Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Health Communication, Technical Communication, Yelp Reviews, Corpus Analysis
Abstract
This project examines user-generated health narratives through corpus analysis of 246 reviews posted on Midwestern Hospital’s Yelp page. Understanding how different stakeholders act and interact within online health communities models a shift in new conceptions of health, and provides evidence of health ecologies’ ability to determine patient perceptions of care. Documents produced by users in these health communities represent health narratives comprised of a user’s health experience, that user’s treatment perceptions, and the community’s perceptions of the user’s experience. Author uses corpus methods to interpret user trace data and rhetorical moves embedded in health narratives. Findings suggest that users who interact with the Yelp community produce different health narratives than less engaged users. Understanding how different stakeholders act and interact within online health communities models a shift in new conceptions of health, and provides evidence of health ecologies’ ability to determine patient perceptions of care.
Scholar Commons Citation
Walkup, Katie Lynn, "Constructing Health Narratives: Patient Feedback in Online Communities" (2017). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/6634
