Reading Between the Lines: Applying Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to Online Constructions of Breast Cancer

Abstract

The Internet offers rich opportunities for examining the construction of health and illness through multiple visual and textual modes. Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) is a method that provides researchers with the tools to critically examine online constructions of health and illness. We discuss our use of MCDA to analyse four Australian breast cancer websites. We examine how breast cancer is constructed through the online presentation of information and support services. We also discuss four key points of MCDA: meaning is multimodal, language is never neutral, meanings are infused with power relations, and underlying choices and assumptions need to be analysed. We illustrate these points by examining how these websites construct the message that women can “live well with breast cancer.” MCDA enables a critical examination of visual and textual constructions of health and illness within spaces that are central to the communication of health information, knowledge, and experience.

Keywords:

• breast cancer
• critical psychology
• health information
• Internet
• MCDA
• visual method

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Correction

Notes

1. The focus of the broader project was on women with breast cancer. We did note, however, that virtually no references were made to men with breast cancer on the websites.

2. Some webpages spanned more than one screenshot.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Farren Gibson

Alexandra Farren Gibson obtained her PhD in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland in December 2014. She is interested in social constructions of health and illness, women’s health, gender and sexuality, and cancer.

Christina Lee

Christina Lee is Professor of Health Psychology at The University of Queensland. Her research covers both qualitative and quantitative work on women’s health, and is informed by a feminist approach to scholarship.

Shona Crabb

Shona Crabb in a Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Adelaide. She is interested in qualitative and critical approaches to women’s health, health promotion, and risk communication.