Wu Ying, Silver Rita Elaine, Guo Libo
College of International Studies, Shenzhen University.
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.
Health Commun. 2025 Mar;40(3):382-393. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2024.2346676. Epub 2024 May 26.
While dissemination of information is a key function of health communication, signage at medical facilities has other functions: signs can be a type of marketing (e.g., services offered), can promote credibility and inspire trust, can exacerbate or ameliorate social inequalities and can provide educational opportunities. All of these functions are influenced by cultural, contextual and social factors as evidenced by a linguistic landscape (LL) perspective. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a particularly instructive case for considering the functions of signage in healthcare LL as it has a strong cultural component from its historical Chinese roots, but its practice has been popularized around the globe in recent years. Given the role of TCM as a main or complementary medical treatment and healthcare option, this study investigates TCM LLs as sites of healthcare communication. Specifically, we analyze a set of 1,659 signs from two TCM hospitals in a multilingual, ethnic minority region of China as a case study which can be useful for healthcare providers when considering their own use of LL. We describe the way language and other sign features are used for informational, symbolic and other functions, showing how explicit communication channels as well as implicit ideological channels can impact healthcare communication. We discuss these findings in light of the need for healthcare communication which is sensitive to stakeholder needs.
虽然信息传播是健康传播的一项关键功能，但医疗机构的标识还有其他功能：标识可以是一种营销方式（例如提供的服务），可以提升可信度并激发信任，可以加剧或改善社会不平等，还可以提供教育机会。正如语言景观（LL）视角所表明的那样，所有这些功能都受到文化、背景和社会因素的影响。中医是考量医疗保健语言景观中标识功能的一个特别有启发性的例子，因为它从中国历史根源中汲取了强大的文化成分，但其实践近年来已在全球范围内得到推广。鉴于中医作为主要或补充性医疗和保健选择的作用，本研究将中医语言景观视为健康传播的场所进行调查。具体而言，我们分析了中国一个多语言少数民族地区两家中医医院的1659个标识作为案例研究，这对于医疗保健提供者在考虑自身对语言景观的使用时可能会有所帮助。我们描述了语言和其他标识特征用于信息、象征和其他功能的方式，展示了明确的沟通渠道以及隐含的意识形态渠道如何影响健康传播。我们根据对利益相关者需求敏感的健康传播需求来讨论这些发现。
