A Stylistics Analysis Of Healthcare Communication Discourses On Billboards And Posters In Windhoek

ABSTRACT

This thesis was a stylistics analysis of healthcare communication discourses on billboards and posters in Windhoek. The main aim of the study was to examine how the language used in healthcare communication messages on posters and billboards, is packaged to persuade readers/consumers to adopt good health practices. The study also concentrated on how the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) principle of advertisement and foregrounding features used in healthcare communication massages contribute to the transformation of the readers’ mind and convince them to take the required necessary actions. The researcher used a qualitative approach since the study did a content analysis to examine why the writers in selected messages used the words they used to persuade readers about certain health issues. The analysis also focussed on what makes the selected texts persuasive using different stylistic techniques such as graphological deviation, parallelism and the AIDA principle of advertisement. A desktop study was utilised to analyse the discourse and to establish whether the messages and images, as well as where they appear (the whole poster or billboard including the background) address the aspect of persuasion and whether they reflect the AIDA principle of advertisement. The researcher utilised purposive sampling to choose seven billboards and seven posters. The researcher used the stylistics theory from a linguistic perspective. This theory was used as it highlights mostly the style used in the language in texts, and it explores creativity in language use. The major findings of the study were that writers of healthcare communication messages achieve persuasion through the use of pleasant words such as adjectives, personal pronouns, comparatives, superlatives, repetition, using pictures with attractive colors and other eye catching visuals. Persuasion is also achieved through brevity as messages are crafted as brief as possible to save the reader’s time. The study has drawn conclusions that all the words that healthcare communication text designers use when composing their texts are vital in persuading readers and getting the message across. However,

some words are more important than others in that they contribute more on convincing readers. These are the type of words which add more value and contribute towards the decision making process of the consumers. The AIDA principle together with foregrounding (graphological deviation and parallelism) contributes more on the transformation of minds.