ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the strategy of disclosing the realistically grotesque is a means to capture the public's attention, and provides a meaning to the "health issue" that contributes to overcoming atomization and attention deficits in media ecosystem. Discourse fragmentation is also a symptom of the deeper contradiction between the forces of atomization and those of homogenization in the healthcare sector. The relationship between communication, strategy, and health has been approached from two contending traditions. The first is largely rooted in French scholarship, especially the meditations of Michel Foucault. Focusing predominantly on the emergence of modern clinical practice and medical institutions, it views communication as mainly discourse, or the expression of an institutional strategy of normalization and control. The second, which is largely made up of English-speaking scholars, perceives communication as the expression of multiple voices that manifest at micro, meso, and macro levels within the context of healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion.
