Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Health communication and Iranian cinema: A critical discourse analysis of cancer portrayals in the 2000s and 2010s

Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript

Authors
Abbas Ghanbari Baghestan 1
Mehraveh Taghizadeh 2
1 Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Iran
2 Master of Communication Studies, Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22035/jicr.2026.3604.3817
Abstract
Cinema, as an art–media form, can contribute to the consolidation, elimination, or reproduction of social discourses and stereotypes related to diseases, including cancer. Therefore, analyzing the ways cancer is portrayed in films—understood as a communicative phenomenon—is important and can illuminate how collective perceptions of stereotypes, patterns of illness experience, and modes of coping are shaped. This study aimed to identify and compare cancer-related discourses in cinema. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis and complete sampling, it analyzed eight Iranian films addressing cancer produced during the 2000s and 2010s. The findings show that the shared discourses across the two decades include “escape from illness,” and “treatment signs as illness signs”. Distinct discourses of the 2000s include “medical diagnosis,” “spiritual healing,” and “nuclear-family support,” while the distinct discourses of the 2010s include “deteriorating relationships,” “fatalism,” and “loneliness.”. Based on the findings, Iranian cinema in both decades demonstrates cancer in a negative and stereotypical manner, characterized by overgeneralization and the othering of patients through confining them to specific spaces and depicting them as passive subjects. Drawing on the EPPM Model, the categories of “disease without identity” and “incurability” can be extracted. Iranian cinema presents a fearful image of cancer in which no recommended responses grounded in self-efficacy or response efficacy are offered to viewers. This, in turn, leads audiences to maintain distance from cancer risk. Overall, Iran’s health system is treatment-oriented, and Iranian cinema likewise appears to adopt the same orientation in its portrayal of cancer.
Keywords
health communication
cancer
cinema
critical discourse analysis
Extended Parallel Process Model
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 06 December 2025
  • Revise Date 26 March 2025
  • Accept Date 30 April 2026