Health Communication at The Amazing You

298 Pages·2015·3.49 MB·English

University of South Florida
Scholar Commons
Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School
5-9-2014
Informing, Entertaining and Persuading: Health
Communication at The Amazing You
David Haldane Lee
University of South Florida, [email protected]
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Lee, David Haldane, "Informing, Entertaining and Persuading: Health Communication at The Amazing You" (2014).Graduate Theses
and Dissertations.
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Informing, Entertaining and Persuading:

Health Communication at The Amazing You

by

David H. Lee

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Communication
College of Arts and Sciences
University of South Florida

Major Professor: Frederick Steier, Ph.D.
Jane Jorgenson, Ph.D.
Eric Eisenberg, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Bird, Ph.D.

Date of Approval:
May 9, 2014

Keywords: Museums, Science Centers, Ethnography, Persuasion, Health Promotion

Copyright © 2014, David H. Lee
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Fred Steier’s interest in systems and reflexivity guides his interdisciplinary ideas as well as his
approach to learning and I am most grateful for the scaffolding he patiently provided. I am also
indebted to Wit Ostrenko, Dave Conley and Judith Lombana and other staff and volunteers for
helping me while I was at MOSI—and to my respondents who helped me understand the
Amazing You exhibition. The members of my doctoral committee, Jane Jorgenson, Eric
Eisenberg and Elizabeth Bird have challenged me with research questions about frames,
communication flows and audiences. I am so grateful for my University of South Florida
Department of Communication colleagues, staff and professors. I am thankful to Stacy Holman
Jones, Ken Cissna and Bernard Flynn. Long talks with Richard Lee and Harriet Rosenberg about
the politics of health care were a big influence. My sister Miriam is an academic inspiration, and
my brother Lucah explained pronouns to me. Thanks also to my entire family in Toronto, Fort
Myers, Palo Alto, Vancouver, Boulder and elsewhere. Above all, I wish to thank my mom,
Nancy Howell, who has helped in so many important ways.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables iv

List of Figures v

Abstract vii

Chapter One: Introduction 1
Prelude: Wit’s Close Call 2
Some Preliminary Research Questions 3
Overlapping Contexts 4
Using the SPEAKING Mnemonic 7
Setting and Scene 8
Participants 9
Ends 11
Act Sequence 14
Key 17
Instrumentalities………………………………………………………………….19
Norms…………………………………………………………………………….24
Genre……………………………………………………………………………. 28
Frame Flexibility……………………………………………………………………… 30
More Research Questions 33
Chapter summary and Preview of This Document……….………………….…………..36

Chapter Two: Research Methods and Participants 42
The Ethnographic Interview 44
Completing the Circle 48
Overview of the Research Process 50
Interviewing Wit Ostrenko 57
Interviewing Dave Conley 65
Archival Research: The TAY Design Development Document 71
Interviewing Judith Lombana 76
Introducing TAY Visitors 82

Chapter Three: Beginning of Life to Adolescence 87
Beginning of Life 87
Infant Roulette and In My Womb 89
Exploring Our Molecular Selves 93
Welcome To Our World 96
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Early Arrival and Pregnancy……………………………………………………..99
Fetal Remains……………………………………………………………….. 103
Childhood……………………………………………………………………………. 108
Body Armor & Body Organ 108
Surgery 101 & Surgery on Demand 111
Nutritional Knowledge 115
Adolescence 117
Unique Just Like You 117
Know How You Grow 123
Superkids………………………………………………………………………..124
Time Machine 125
Risky Relations 126
Healthywood Squares 128
Drunken Driving 131

Chapter Four: Adulthood to End of Life 133
Early Adulthood 133
Life Mosaic 133
Choices for Longevity 134
Smoking and Health 135
Mindball 144
Cybernetic Human 146
3D Body Exploration 148
Spinal Cord Injuries 149
Adulthood 151
The Spin Doctor…………………………………………………………..…….152
Options, Options………………………………………………………………..155
MetiMan 159
Cardiology 161
Thank Goodness I Caught It Early 167
You, M.D and Laughter Is the Best Medicine 168
Stem Cell Research 174
Older Adulthood 186
Live Forever 186
Stroke and Alzheimer’s 188
Cancer Answers 193
End Of Life 197
Stages of Dying…………………………………………………………………198
Cultural Death Rituals…………………………………………………………..200
Organ Donation…………………………………………………………………202
Grieving and Healing /The Legacy Station 205

Chapter Five: Visitor Feedback 208
Chapter Preview and Research Questions 208
Summary of Survey Results 209
ii
Interview Summaries 213
Positive Feedback: Interactivity and Eye Openers 213
Critical Feedback 216
Functionality and Noise 216
Age Appropriateness 219
The Need for More Staff 224
Proactive Versus Reactive Health 226

Chapter Six: Conclusion
Summary of Results and Findings 235
Representational strategies at TAY 236
Considerations of gender, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status 239
Agency, determinism, and the mixed metaphor of games of chance 242
Indirect directives as a rhetorical strategy 244
The question of behavior modification 246
Individualistic elements of health promotion discourse? 247
The human implications of interactivity 251
Implications for Designers, Visitor Studies and Communication Theory 252
Terminologies for Further Research 258
Neoliberal governmentality and healthism 259
The post-museum 263
Closing Remarks 265

Works Cited 270

Appendix I: MOSI Letter of Support 280

Appendix II: Informed Consent Form 282

Appendix III: IRB Approval Letter 286
iii
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Top descriptors used 201

Table 2: Most mentioned exhibits 202

Table 3: “Do you think TAY might influence guests to make healthier choices?” 203

Table 4: Suggestions for improvement 203

iv
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: A circular diagram of science center communication 49

Figure 2: The Amazing You Cardiology exhibit mock-up 75

Figure 3: In My Womb 92

Figure 4: Where Did You Get Those Genes? 93

Figure 5: Exploring Our Molecular Selves 95

Figure 6: Early Arrival 99

Figure 7: Surgery 101 112

Figure 8: Unique, Just Like You 118

Figure 9: Adolescent puppets 120

Figure 10: Pat Pedraja, Super Kids 124

Figure 11: Healthywood Squares 128

Figure 12: Juanita, Healthywood Squares 129

Figure 13: RB, Healthywood Squares 130

Figure 14: Life Mosaic 133

Figure 15: Lung specimens 136

Figure 16: Smoking and Health teen 138

Figure 17: Smoking and Health Harry Nyce 140

Figure 18: Harry Nyce removes prosthetics 141

Figure 19: The Cybernetic Human 146

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Figure 20: 3D Body Exploration 148

Figure 21: Taking a Chance With Your Spine 151

Figure 22: The Spin Doctor 152

Figure 23: MetiMan Patient Simulator 159

Figure 24: Cardiology Centerpiece 162

Figure 25: Clogged Pipes 164

Figure 26: Thank Goodness I Caught it Early 167

Figure 27: You, M.D 171

Figure 28: You, M.D. patient 172

Figure 29: Beautiful Stem Cells 177

Figure 30: Stroke of Bad Luck 191

Figure 31: Cancer Answers disembodied head 195

Figure 32: The Skinny On Skin 196

Figure 33: Tibetan Sky Burial 202

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ABSTRACT

This is a study of the communication environment at The Amazing You, an exhibition
about health and wellness at the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). The purpose
of this study is to describe a multi-media, multi-vocal health communication environment which
incorporates forms of intervention from various medical communities of practice into a narrative
about human life stages. Describing communication at a science center as circular, complex and
multi-directional allows for notions of feedback to be considered in an otherwise unilinear and
unidirectional process from sender to receiver. This research is about science center
communication as an integrative, wrap-around process, from medical experts, to exhibit
designers, to visitors, and back. In this study I have interviewed MOSI executives to find out
about the purposes of the exhibition and the process of consultation, design and implementation.
I have also conducted 72 surveys and 22 in-depth interviews with MOSI visitors to elicit
feedback about the exhibition.
This ethnographic inquiry into a health communication environment shows how visitors
are urged to identify with health promotion messages which interpellate them as disease
candidates. Using theoretical concepts from frame analysis, classical rhetoric and speech act
theory opens up new lines of inquiry for exhibit designers, museum administrators, visitor
researchers and critical communication researchers interested in multimedia health promotion.
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