In addition to documenting travel adventures and extending holiday greetings to friends and family, postcards can also function as health communication. This investigation turns to a unique type of health-themed postcard: a vintage postcard that portrays medical vaccination titled “Life at Camp Dix, N. J. Inoculation.” The rhetorical analysis, guided by inoculation theory (a theory of resistance to influence), explores how vaccination is portrayed and how challenges to vaccination (e.g., concerns about side effects) are addressed, finding that components of inoculation theory are reflected in the postcard, especially when considering both sides of the postcard (front and back).
Compton, J. (2024, November). The other side of Life at Camp Dix: Postcards, inoculation, and inoculation theory. Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA.
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