Health communication: a call for papers (original) (raw)

Health Communication for COVID-19 and beyond : Exploring newer horizons

Communicator , 2020

As the year 2020 began with the COVID-19 crisis, various issues related directly and also indirectly came up in all walks of our life, closely fighting for attention. These include preparedness for facing such an uphill task during this kind of testing times, the vulnerability of the human race itself against the outbreak of diseases, potential future problems to be tackled once the pandemic was controlled out among others. They raised sufficient grounds for severe deliberations by the quarters concerned cutting across geographical as well as political borders. A major one out of these is the need for having a mprehensive, robust and dynamic ‘communication’ plan for effective health nformation dissemination to the people at every level. This shall serve two important purposes. First– the messages of a healthy lifestyle shall reach out to the people in the right perspective. Secondly– gradually convert the mindset of the masses towards taking such messages seriously for the sake of the very survival of humankind. This study examines the current status of health communication, especially in the Indian context, with the possibility of arriving at a few recommendations for future usage. The study also attempts to identify several critical issues in this regard. These include bottlenecks on the way of achieving success, concern for mental health under such circumstances, identifying potential stakeholders, efforts from academic initiatives in this domain for empowering the people etc. It also looks at the issue of ‘risk communication’ which is a closely-related subject of the overall domain of ‘health communication’. Keywords: Academic initiative, Media, New media, Public health, Stakeholders

Number 1 Article 6 Commentary: Changing the Channel: Public Health Communication in the 21st Century

2013

This commentary asserts the need for research examining the use and efficacy of social media as a tool for meeting public health stakeholders' information needs. The author points to several potential research questions for the field, situates studies addressing these questions within the PHSSR Research Agenda, and introduces the work of Harris et al. that is included in this issue of Frontiers. The commentary closes with a call for horizontal stakeholder communication that supports evidence-based decision-making.

Health Communication Campaigns in Developing Countries

Despite a lack of scholarly consensus on the effectiveness of health communication campaigns, there is general agreement that communication interventions are necessary to bring about and maintain large-scale behaviour and social change. Designing, implementing and evaluating health communication campaigns is a complex task with myriad challenges, multiplied manifold in developing country settings. The purpose of this article is to examine key elements of health communication campaigns in developing countries. A review of published literature revealed 43 articles and five books with chapters discussing developing country campaigns. The project locations indicated a wide geographical dispersion. The campaigns reviewed ranged from multinational initiatives to programmes confined to specific cities or villages. The health issues tackled in the manuscripts were reflective of the health goals articulated in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A relatively small proportion of the reviewed literature discussed the use of theory as a framework or foundation for the intervention(s); individuallevel behaviour change theories were the most commonly used. The selected campaigns utilized a range of mass media, community mobilization, and interpersonal communication strategies, and often employed multiple strategies and communication channels. A set of recommendations is presented to further our understanding of communication campaigns in developing country settings.

Communication at the Core of Effective Public Health

Years from now, we may remember the fall of 2001 as the traumatic period in our country's history when public health became visible throughout society. While the dust was still settling from the terrorist attacks and the country grappled with fears of anthrax in our mail, the American public learned what professionals have known for years: the health and security of our nation depend heavily on a robust public health system. An additional revelation from this turbulent time was the critical role of strategic, timely, and effective communication in public health. The realization that both science and communication are essential to promoting and protecting the health of the public was a major milestone in the emerging discipline of public health communication, reinforcing its vital role as a new core component of public health.

Advances in Global Health Communication

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

In our global society where disease knows no border, countries are increasingly recognizing the importance of improving health conditions both domestically and abroad. The World Health Organization (2013) has documented that infectious diseases are emerging and spreading at the fastest pace ever in history. The ease of international travel heightens epidemic and pandemic concerns with the emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases such as Ebola and Zika virus. Global health concerns also include noncommunicable "lifestyle diseases" such as obesity and illicit substance and tobacco use, which are now leading causes of disability and death worldwide. Given the prevalence and severity of global diseases, it is becoming more incumbent of countries to prevent and detect infectious and "lifestyle" diseases not only for their own populations but also for populations beyond their borders as a means to securing political and economic stability. For this special issue on "advances in global health communication," we defined global health in a dual manner. It entails health-related issues that literally cross international borders but also health-related issues that many countries are affected by (Koplan et al., 2009). Thus, in the first regard, it involves epidemics and pandemics such as Ebola and Zika virus, whereas, in the second regard, it encompasses noncommunicable "lifestyle diseases" related to obesity, smoking, and illicit drug use. The spread of both of these types of health-related issues across international borders is not new but has become more rapid given the interconnectedness of countries that results from the increased speed and prevalence of travel and the increased economic interdependency of countries (Koplan et al., 2009). In this manner, global health accentuates the importance of transnational health determinants and solutions, including those specific to the field of communication, which has undergone a rapid evolution and acceleration in speed, reach, and technological innovation. In particular, mediated communication-in the context of journalism, advertising, public relations, and strategic communication-is an effective mechanism for detecting, responding to, preventing, and controlling global health concerns. At no time in history are media more prolific and widely available to everyday citizens. About two thirds of the world's population is online, making the world more interconnected than ever, both economically and socially (Poushter, 2016). These usage rates are especially high in advanced economies such as South Korea, the United States, and China, but usage of social network sites is actually higher among emerging economies such as those in the Middle East, Latin 709243J MQXXX10.

Commentary: Changing the Channel: Public Health Communication in the 21st Century

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research, 2013

Health Communication : Infodemic and Communication Strategies

Health Communication : Infodemic and Communication Strategies, 2021

Health Communication has evolved into one of the most crucial areas of communication. The pandemic has demonstrated to the globe that the virus is not limited, and nobody is safe irrespective of gender, wealth, or prosperity. During the catastrophe of lockdowns and supply shortages, communication seemed to be crucial.

Understanding Health Communication Concept and approach

2011

The fundamental purpose of development communication seems to bring about behavior change it respect to target population for any sector. In the erstwhile family planning programmers the emphasis was to bring about a shift in the attitude of the people towards a small family norm and thereby encourage them to adopt suitable family planning methods such as spacing etc., Supporting campaigns focused on such messages. (Rogers, 1962). The discipline of development communication, both as theory and as practice, emerged closely interconnected with the growing “development industry.” From the outset “development support communication,” “program support communication,” “communication for development,” or as called in this publication, “development communication,” has been seen as a strategic tool to persuade people to change and enhance development processes. Many communication models have informed the field. The early models like Lasswell's communication theory (1948) were linear in th...

Changes and New Trends in Health Communication

CTC 2021 PROCEEDINGS BOOK, 2021

Health communication can be considered in terms of different groups such as communication of healthcare professionals with each other, patient-healthcare worker communication, patient-patient communication and patient relatives communication with each other. Communication is the primary tool in ensuring health literacy and disseminating effective health information to the wider audience. Effective health communication raises awareness about health problems, risks and solutions; influences and strengthens individuals' attitudes. All mass media are used within the scope of health education to develop and adopt healthy living habits in society in order to improve health. The dizzying developments and changes in communication technologies have diversified and enriched the ways to obtain more information and support about health problems. The transition from monologue to dialogue in the internet field has caused the transformation from one-way information transmission to dynamic, mul...

1012 MER Developing health communication

Building knowledge on how to effectively gather, elaborate upon and disseminate health communication research remains a primary issue in a diverse European Union (EU) setting.

Health communication: a call for papers (original) (raw)

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