Critical Discourse Analysis of Rhetoric Against Complementary Medicine

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to critically analyse a selection of the 'Friends of Science in Medicine' media to determine if power and ideology are linguistically structured and deployed in their representation of complementary medicine. Design/methodology/approach: Thirteen separate media events are collated as a single case and analysed by critical discourse analysis. This research design interrogates discourse statements for their constitution and reproduction of power and ideology. Findings: The Friends of Science in Medicine represent complementary medicine through a strategy of rhetoric and argumentation that contradicts the literature. Their discourse is symbolic and derives from a power-based ideological perspective that forms the basis for promoting exclusion of complementary medicine from university education and primary health care.