Discourse/Conversation Analysis

Abstract The study of discourse has a long history in health communication, healthcare, and medical communication. This entry pairs conversation analysis and discourse analysis. While each approach has a unique history, methods, and aims, both approaches have a broad scope, and both approaches obscure the lines between theory and method traditionally drawn by social science methodology. This overview first synthesizes key similarities and differences of conversation analysis and discourse analysis as distinct qualitative research methods focused on language, language use, and language‐in‐action as constitutive of social life related to health communication. Separate sections highlight unique contributions for a diverse range and scope of studies using each approach. Conversation analysis typically uses audio and especially video recordings of medical encounters and other health‐related contexts and contributes understandings of turn design, action sequences, and overall occasions of medical and health interaction. Discourse analysis employs a variety of analytic methods and data types ranging from audio‐ or videorecorded interactions or texts on one end of the spectrum to a wide array of texts and images that are sometimes used together in a single analysis. This section uses the framework of macro, meso, and micro levels to discuss contributions to discourses of/in health communication. The entry concludes with some suggested future directions for conversation analysis and discourse analysis in health communication.