Teaching/learning activities in the field of Communication Competence (such as those that address breaking bad news to patients) can resort to the Cinematic Arts and draw information from a body of theoretical principles found in Communicational Theory (which studies human communication in its syntactical, semantic and pragmatic aspects). Topics in the Syntactics of breaking bad news include the use of euphemisms and non-verbal language. The Semantics of bad news focuses on what is communicated, rather than on how one communicates it. Pragmatic aspects are discussed in more detail and involve disqualification and disqualifying medical discourses.
medical education; humanities; communication; films