Beach2009a

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Beach2009a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Beach2009a
Author(s) Wayne A. Beach
Title Between dad and son: initiating, delivering, and assimilating bad cancer news
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Medical, Cancer, Bad News
Publisher
Year 2009
Language
City
Month
Journal Health Communication
Volume 14
Number 3
Pages 271–298
URL Link
DOI 10.1207/S15327027HC1403_1
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

The opening moments of a phone call reveal how a father informs his son, for the 1st time, that his mom's tumor is malignant. An extended phone opening reveals how delaying talk about the mom's condition allows for important interactional work: Displaying resistance to announce the bad news directly, projecting and anticipating the valence of forthcoming news prior to its announcement, and delicately sharing ownership of a serious health condition at the outset of a family cancer journey. Enacting a biomedical demeanor, replete with technical language and withholdings of emotional and personal reactions, subsequent delivery and reception of the bad news is managed stoically-a normalized resource employed by consequential figures when managing and coping with dreaded news events. By closely examining how family members talk through cancer on the telephone, the scope of health communication research is extended beyond clinical settings into home environments, progress is made on the noticeable absence of interactional studies in psycho-oncology, and diverse implications arise for understanding how lay persons diagnose and manage illness dilemmas.

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