1887
Volume 32, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1387-6740
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9935

Abstract

Abstract

This study examines how patients use narratives to evaluate their experiences of healthcare services online. The analysis draws on corpus linguistic techniques, specifically annotation, applying Labov and Waletzky’s (1967) framework to a sample of online comments about the NHS in England. Narratives are pervasive in this context, being present more than absent in the patients’ comments, but are particularly prominent in comments which evaluate care negatively. Evaluations can be accomplished through all the structural elements of the narrative, including in combination with one another. However, the presence and ordering of these elements does not seem to be influenced by the type of evaluation given (i.e. positive, negative or more neutral). As mediated social practice, the narratives are shaped by the technological affordances and social dynamics of this context, for instance in the placement of particular structural elements and the design of narratives for particular “imagined” audiences.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ni.20098.bro
2021-08-23
2025-05-01
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/ni.20098.bro.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/ni.20098.bro&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Anthony, L.
    (2020) AntConc (Version 3.5.9) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Available fromhttps://www.laurenceanthony.net/software
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Arribas-Ayllon, M.
    (2021) Narrative Analysis: DNA testing and collaborative knowledge-building in a CFS/ME forum. InG. Brookes & D. Hunt (Eds.), Analysing Health Communication: Discourse Approaches. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978‑3‑030‑68184‑5_4
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68184-5_4 [Google Scholar]
  3. Atkinson, P., & Delamont, S.
    (2006) In the Roiling Smoke: Qualitative Inquiry and Contested Fields. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(6), 747–755. 10.1080/09518390600975974
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390600975974 [Google Scholar]
  4. Austin, J.
    (1962) How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bell, A.
    (1984) Language Style as Audience Design. InN. Coupland and A. Jaworski (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook (pp.240–250). Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Baker, P., Brookes, G., & Evans, C.
    (2019) The Language of Patient Feedback: A Corpus Linguistic Study of Online Health Communication. Routledge. 10.4324/9780429259265
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429259265 [Google Scholar]
  7. Brookes, G., & Baker, P.
    (2017) What does patient feedback reveal about the NHS? A mixed methods study of comments posted to the NHS Choices online service. BMJ Open, 7: e013821. 10.1136/bmjopen‑2016‑013821
    https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013821 [Google Scholar]
  8. Brookes, G., & Harvey, K.
    (2016a) Opening up the NHS to market: using multimodal critical discourse analysis to examine the ongoing corporatisation of health care communication. Journal of Language and Politics, 15(3), 288–302. 10.1075/jlp.15.3.04bro
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15.3.04bro [Google Scholar]
  9. (2016b) Examining the discourse of mental illness in a corpus of online advice-seeking messages. InL. Pickering, E. Friginal and S. Staples (Eds.), Talking at Work: Corpus-based Explorations of Workplace Discourse (pp.209–234). Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/978‑1‑137‑49616‑4_9
    https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49616-4_9 [Google Scholar]
  10. Brookes, G., & McEnery, T.
    (2020) Corpus Linguistics. InS. Adolphs and D. Knight (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of English Language and Digital Humanities (pp.378–404). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003031758‑20
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003031758-20 [Google Scholar]
  11. Bruner, J.
    (1991) The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1–21. 10.1086/448619
    https://doi.org/10.1086/448619 [Google Scholar]
  12. Charon, R.
    (2006) The self-telling body. Narrative Inquiry, 16, 191–200. 10.1075/ni.16.1.24cha
    https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.16.1.24cha [Google Scholar]
  13. Clark, J., & Mishler, E.
    (1992) Attending to patients’ stories: Reframing the clinical task. Sociology of Health and Illness, 14, 344–370. 10.1111/1467‑9566.ep11357498
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11357498 [Google Scholar]
  14. Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L.
    (2000) Evaluating Evaluation in Narrative. InS. Hunston and G. Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in Text: Authorial stance and the construction of discourse (pp.102–120). Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Davis, J., Lister, J., & Wringley, D.
    (2015) NHS for Sale. Merlin Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Frank, A.
    (1995) The Wounded Storyteller. University of Chicago Press. 10.7208/chicago/9780226260037.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226260037.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  17. Georgakopoulou, A.
    (2007) Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. John Benjamins. 10.1075/sin.8
    https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.8 [Google Scholar]
  18. Goffman, E.
    (1955) On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 18(3), 213–231. 10.1080/00332747.1955.11023008
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1955.11023008 [Google Scholar]
  19. Greenhalgh, T.
    (1999) Narrative based medicine in an evidence based world. British Medical Journal, 318, 232. 10.1136/bmj.318.7179.323
    https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7179.323 [Google Scholar]
  20. Greenhalgh, T., & Hurwitz, B.
    (1999) Why study narrative?British Medical Journal, 318(7175), 48–50. 10.1136/bmj.318.7175.48
    https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7175.48 [Google Scholar]
  21. Harvey, K., & Koteyko, N.
    (2012) Exploring Health Communication: Language in Action. Routledge. 10.4324/9780203096437
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203096437 [Google Scholar]
  22. Holmes, J., & Marra, M.
    (2005) Narrative and the construction of professional identity in the workplace. InJ. Thornborrow and J. Coates (Eds.), The Sociolinguistics of Narrative (pp.913–213). John Benjamins. 10.1075/sin.6.10hol
    https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.6.10hol [Google Scholar]
  23. Jones, R.
    (2013) Health and Risk Communication: An Applied Linguistic Perspective. Routledge. 10.4324/9780203521410
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203521410 [Google Scholar]
  24. Kleinman, A.
    (1988) The illness narratives: Suffering, healing, and the human condition. Basic Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Labov, W., & Waletzky, J.
    (1967) Narrative analysis. InJ. Helm (Ed.) Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts (pp.12–44). University of Washington Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Lamerichs, J., & Te Molder, H.
    (2003) Computer-mediated communication: from cognitive to a discursive model. New Media & Society, 5(4), 451–473. 10.1177/146144480354001
    https://doi.org/10.1177/146144480354001 [Google Scholar]
  27. Linde, C.
    (1997) Evaluation as a linguistic structure and social practice. InB. L. Gunnarsson, P. Linell & B. Nordberg (Eds.), The Construction of Professional Discourse (pp.151–172). Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Polanyi, L.
    (1979) So what’s the point?Semiotica, 25, 207–241. 10.1515/semi.1979.25.3‑4.207
    https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1979.25.3-4.207 [Google Scholar]
  29. Polkinghorne, D.
    (1988) Narrative knowing and the human sciences. New York Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Riessman, C.
    (1990) Strategic Uses of Narrative in the Presentation of Self and Illness. Social Science and Medicine, 30, 1195–1200. 10.1016/0277‑9536(90)90259‑U
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(90)90259-U [Google Scholar]
  31. Sarangi, S., & Clarke, A.
    (2002) Constructing an account by contrast in counselling for childhood genetic testing. Social Science & Medicine, 54, 295–308. 10.1016/S0277‑9536(01)00029‑6
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00029-6 [Google Scholar]
  32. Ziebland, S.
    (2013) Narrative interviewing. InS. Ziebland, A. Coulter, J. D. Calabrese & L. Locock (Eds.), Understanding and Using Health Experiences: Improving patient care (pp.38–47). Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665372.003.0005
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665372.003.0005 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ni.20098.bro
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/ni.20098.bro
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): annotation; Health Communication; narrative; NHS; patient feedback
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error