State Speech on Health in the United States

• In Event: 20820 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 17. The State, Legal System, and Healthcare Policy

Abstract

Governments “speak”—often, and loudly. Examples of state speech include social media postings, press releases, mass media campaigns, government reports, and, arguably, government-mandated labelling on commercial products, such as packaged food, beverages, and tobacco products. Speech may cover a broad range of topics, including education, access to social services, safety, health, and cooperation and compliance with government, among others. Despite the commonplace nature of state speech, very little theoretical or empirical work has focused on it. In this paper, we develop a typology of state speech, which includes (1) direct speech, (2) compelled commercial speech, and (3) compelled professional speech. We then use an innovative data source—all Tweets from USAGov in 2015 (N=2080)—to examine characteristics of state speech, focusing especially on speech related to individual, family, community, and population health. We then examine the relationship between the disease burden imposed by various threats to health and the relative frequency with which they are addressed in our data. We conclude by arguing that developing a sociology of government speech would be a useful enterprise and suggest a few next steps in that direction.

Authors

• Mark Wolfson, University of California-Riverside

• Samane Zare