Despite Denmark’s reputation as an enlightened, egalitarian society, recent research, health reports and media stories reveal ignorance and inequality among the population regarding areas within sexual health.
Financed by VELUX FONDEN, this project investigates how sexual health issues are communicated about, for and by two general age groups (young and older people) in public health information resources and in citizens’ own online communication about these issues. For this, we employ an approach to communication – multimodal social semiotics – which is designed for the analysis of multiple communicative resources (words, images, typography, colour, sound, etc.). We thereby seek to understand – and thus lay a foundation for qualifying – the way health communication professionals, media and laypeople communicate about sexual health.
The project aims to make significant contributions to improving sexual health communication and raise awareness of how inequalities, shame and taboos in sexual health are perpetuated in communication, and how these may be broken through clear and inclusive multimodal representations – thereby furthering inclusion and diversity, countering ignorance and inequality.
For further information, please contact Nina Nørgaard.