This article discusses contrasting forms of ‘biocommunicability’ as manifested in health-care reporting. The concept of ‘biocommunicability’ refers to sets of normative assumptions on the production and circulation of knowledge and information about health. This article builds on a previous paper discussing two models of ‘biocommunicability’ that dominate health reporting — the medical authority and patient— consumer models — introducing a third, public sphere model, and discussing the kinds of hybrid genres of reporting that have emerged as health issues have been drawn into the political arena. The article is based on content and discourse analysis of seven months of health reporting in a regional newspaper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, as well as examples drawn from reporting in the national press, and on interviews with reporters and health professionals.
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