Health communication

For this assignment, I’m asking you to write a short essay about the organization Theranos. This medical testing startup has made significant headlines in the last several months, because their breakthrough technology doesn’t actually work. They constructed a mythology around their organization, telling people that they could test blood for a variety of diseases

and

conditions with only a finger prick of blood.

Here are two timelines that cover the basics of the case:

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/01/222855/theranos-scandal-timeline-what-happened-elizabeth-holmes-documentary

and

The case was covered in the book “Bad Blood,” which is available by clicking this

link

.

The case was also covered in the HBO documentary “The Inventor,” which you can learn more about at this link.

Finally, there are countless articles and editorials written about the Theranos case. A good summary and archive can be found at this link.

Your job is to construct an essay that analyzes the Theranos case from a Health Communication perspective. Use the following criteria to construct your essay:

The essay should be five pages of single-spaced text (or about 1250 words)

You may also include a cover page and images, tables, or graphics; however, your cover page and images/graphics are not included in the overall page count

Your essay should include a reference page with all cited material from the essay. You should be prepared to cite extensive evidence in your papers to support your points. Evidence may include:

excerpts from the book “Bad Blood”

examples from the documentary “The Inventor”

quotes from any of the articles referenced in the “Obsessives Guide”

at least 5 popular press articles/references (the book, documentary, and any of the articles from the Obsessives Guide count toward this total of 5 popular references)

at least 5 academic references, which will be limited to 1) your textbook or 2) any of the academic journals that we covered in Units 1 and 2 (e.g., Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research)

You should use APA formatting throughout your paper

Ok, so you’ve got the mechanics down – what should the content cover?

You will need to select 3 health communication concepts that we covered in class that are illustrated in the Theranos case. These concepts can come from any of the units, but you should be able to trace that concept back to the duPre textbook at least somewhere, or to any of the other course readings on healthy literacy, health needs, etc. You will use these 3 concepts to answer the questions:

What does the Theranos case teach us about health communication? and

In what ways does the Theranos case illustrate a breakdown or failure in communication?

Your essay should include an introduction with the following:

a short attention getter

background/justification for the paper

a thesis statement that gives your general answer to the questions: what does the Theranos case teach us about health communication? andIn what ways does the Theranos case illustrate a breakdown or failure in communication?

a preview of main points

Your essay should also include 3 main points where you do the following:

outline one health communication concept per main point

apply that concept to the Theranos case, using examples from the book, the documentary, and the articles

support your main point by citing an article from an academic journal (from the lists we used in Units 1 and 2)

do the same thing again for two more concepts/main points

Your essay should conclude with a paragraph about what we need to learn from the Theranos case and what it teaches us about communication in general.