ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a punctual perspective of the way the narratives on the blogs written by people suffering from incurable diseases in Romania can be understood and decoded by the potential audience of blog readers and by the researchers interested in health and disease-related communication. The blog addresses a category of individuals, an audience' but it does this while using an intimate tonality. The analysis done on the four blogs written by certain women suffering from chronic disease in Romania highlighted the fact that virtual narratives were made up of two main narrative sequences: the diagnosis sub-narrative' and the treatment sub-narrative'. The chapter identifies, the linguistic procedures used by the narrator reflect the extremely personal perspectives of the incurable disease experience. It considers that using certain linguistic mechanisms in prevention campaigns, such as those used in the narratives told by the chronically ill, might increase the credibility of the messages sent through the disease and health communications.