Please find the details for our upcoming talk below. Note that this talk will be delivered online, though in person attendance is both welcomed and encouraged!

• Next Event: Tuesday 12^th November, 1-2pm
  Location: IOE – Room C3.14 (Speaker online)

  Zoom Link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93281768433?pwd=t930xwrlgVFfQ4y7Fzhsjrb34n82Hb.1

  We welcome Sinéad Jackson, who is a doctoral research student in The Department of Culture, Communication & Media, University College London, UK,.

  ‘Slipping, Falling, and Stumbling Backwards: Metaphors of dependence and recovery in online alcohol support materials.’

  It is estimated that in England alone, there are over 600,000 dependent drinkers, of whom just 18% are seeking support or receiving treatment (Committee of Public Accounts, 2023). Reasons related to self-stigma, shame, and a perceived lack of agency are often cited as the most significant barriers to help-seeking behaviours (Bilberg, 2019). This talk will present a piece of research exploring implications of the metaphors used to talk about alcohol use in online support materials, attempting to isolate the language individuals seeking support may be likely to encounter. Metaphor has been shown to influence how we perceive, respond to, and emotionally appraise experiences of illness; to inform and shape perceptions of agency and control; to reinforce or challenge stigmatising attitudes; and to influence health-related risk assessment and behaviours. However, there is currently little research available on the landscape of figurative language use in alcohol-related health messaging.

  Using a specialised corpus of online texts produced by alcohol support organisations, this talk will consider two questions: How is alcohol use metaphorically framed by professional support services? What positive or negative implications might these framings have for support-seeking individuals? The presented analysis will identify metaphors targeted at four key aspects of alcohol use: (i) lived experience, (ii) coping strategies, (iii) alcohol use disorder, and (iv) treatment options. Particular consideration will be paid to the conceptualisations of affected individuals and dependency supported by the framings, and the kind or degree of agency being attributed to the participants. Finally, the discussion hopes to highlight how linguistic choices may reflect, reinforce, or challenge existing theoretical perspectives, illustrating the role of language in framing perceptions in health information.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The UCL Health Communication Network Team

References

Bilberg, R. (2019). Barriers to Treatment for Alcohol Dependence. Journal of Drug and Alcohol Research.

Committee of Public Accounts. (2023). Alcohol treatment services. House of Commons.

Next Event: Tuesday 22^nd October, 1-2pm
Location: IOE – Room C3.14

We are delighted to welcome Federico Federici, who is a Professor of Intercultural Crisis Communication in The Department of Translation Studies, University College London, UK.

Federico’s research predominantly focuses on translators and interpreters as intercultural mediators and the study of translation in crises. He is particularly proud of having recently edited Language as a Social Determinant of Health for Springer (2022). He is currently working with a healthcare centre in Italy on issues of multilingual health communication among marginalised and vulnerable groups, and with oncologists in London on language as a tool to having equal access to healthcare.

Upcoming Talk: ‘Some languages are more equal than others: language resources and healthcare communication’

In this paper, I will not present new data and figures, but reflect on how new approaches, such as the WHO’s Guidance on Communicating for Health (WHO, 2017b) and on communicating risks (WHO, 2017a), seem to indicate new attention to the role of effective multilingual communication in international healthcare settings. Changing international perspectives may represent an encouraging shift away from the monolingual mindset often influencing crisis and emergency communication strategies in international health and humanitarian crises.

However, these shifts will be considered in relation to data collected from a project on vaccination hesitancy among migrant populations in Italy – STRIVE Project 2021-2022 (Ciribuco & Federici, 2024) –, informal conversations with Médecins Sans Frontières London, and collaborative activities with the Healthcare Centre for Forced Migrants (SAMIFO) in Rome. The talk will consider issues of effective communication in relation to time and language resources. Time and resources create disadvantages for some languages and have an impact on effectiveness of translation and interpreting (Krystallidou & Braun, 2023; Krystallidou et al., 2024) and the role of technological (Delfani et al., 2024; Halimi Mallem & Bouillon, 2019; Moberly, 2018; Taira et al., 2021) and terminological resources. The talk will reflect briefly on the role of translation and interpreting in influencing reports and research projects conducted in multilingual settings with limited planning for language services, which could damage quality of data and skew research findings.

These reflections centre around the concept of language as a social determinant of health. The talk is intended to encourage debate on the usefulness of such conceptualization and engage with colleagues in understanding whether some languages are more equal than others when accessing health information.

Zoom Link for hybrid attendance to all talks: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93281768433?pwd=t930xwrlgVFfQ4y7Fzhsjrb34n82Hb.1

We look forward to seeing you there!

The UCL Health Communication Network Team

Emma, Andrea, and Sinéad

References

Ciribuco, A., & Federici, F. M. (2024). The experience of intercultural mediators in the Italian COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Language and Intercultural Communication, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2024.2337382

Delfani, J., Orasan, C., Saadany, H., Temizoz, O., Taylor-Stilgoe, E., Kanojia, D., Braun, S., & Schouten, B. (2024). Google Translate Error Analysis for Mental Healthcare Information: Evaluating Accuracy, Comprehensibility, and Implications for Multilingual Healthcare Communication. arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.04023. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.04023

Halimi Mallem, I. S., & Bouillon, P. (2019). Google Translate and BabelDr in Community Medical Settings: Challenges of Translating into Arabic. In F. Said (Ed.), Arabic Translation Across Discourses (pp. 27-44). Routledge.

Krystallidou, D., & Braun, S. (2023). Risk and Crisis Communication during COVID-19 in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Communities: A Scoping Review of the Available Evidence. In P. Blumczynski & S. Wilson (Eds.), The Languages of COVID-19 (pp. 128-144). Routledge.

Krystallidou, D., Temizöz, Ö., Wang, F., de Looper, M., Maria, E. D., Gattiglia, N., Giani, S., Hieke, G., Morganti, W., Pace, C. S., Schouten, B., & Braun, S. (2024). Communication in refugee and migrant mental healthcare: A systematic rapid review on the needs, barriers and strategies of seekers and providers of mental health services. Health Policy, 139, 104949. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2023.104949

Moberly, T. (2018). Doctors are cautioned against using Google Translate in consultations. British Medical Journal. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4546

Taira, B. R., Kreger, V., Orue, A., & Diamond, L. C. (2021). A Pragmatic Assessment of Google Translate for Emergency Department Instructions. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 1-5.

WHO. (2017a). Communicating Risk in Public Health Emergencies. A WHO Guideline for Emergency Risk Communication (ERC) policy and practice. World Health Organization. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/9789241550208-eng_0.pdf

WHO. (2017b). WHO Strategic Communications. Framework for effective communications. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/documents/communicating-for-health/communication-framework.pdf