Two Health Communication Researchers Watch The Pitt: A Collaborative Dialogue Exploring Paradigmatic Difference.

Abstract

Health communication is a paradigmatically diverse field shaped by post-positivist, interpretive, critical, and cultural studies traditions. While these approaches provide rich scholarly insights on their own, we believe there is something to be gained by engaging in cross-paradigmatic research, specifically through dialogue. This research explores how divergent paradigmatic orientations can intersect productively through a collaborative dialogue analyzing of The Pitt, a medical drama that premiered on HBO Max in January 2025. As two health communication scholars-one post-positivist and one critical-we use collaborative dialogue to reflect on our distinct interpretations of the same media text, surfacing insights into expertise and agency, health communication phenomena (e.g., resource scarcity, emotional labor, and harm reduction), and health communication theories and practices. By holding paradigmatic differences in dialogue rather than seeking hybridization or dissolution, this study highlights new possibilities for reflexive engagement in health communication research, intradisciplinary collaboration, and pedagogy.