Abstract
Health communication campaigns are a significant attempt that makes people aware of health risks and aims to inform the public about numerous issues that threaten public health. Media is the totality of communication channels and tools used to collect, store, and convey information or data to the public. Also, the media shape the behavior of the public through advertising and entertainment in the way it uses language and images. Within this framework, media is arguably one of the most utilized and efficient tools in terms of spreading public health messages and endorsing disease prevention. As its name would suggest, health communication campaigns are a vital part of the health promotion programs and strategies. In this sense, the media have many benefits for developing great health communication campaigns. Briefly, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss the use of media in health communication campaigns and campaign processes.
TopIntroduction
As a way of introduction, this chapter of the book will compendiously describe the overall approach to health communication campaigns and highlight the role of media in terms of designing health communication campaigns.
Health communication is a young and applied discipline that examining the delivery of health services and health promotion (Kreps, 2015). In light of this, health communication research is characteristically problem-focused and aims to identify critical communication issues that degrade the quality of healthcare services and adversely affect health promotion programs, strategies, and campaigns.
Transmitting a broad array of health messages to a broad range of patients or audiences is compelling. Within this context, the role and responsibility of media (e.g., radio, television, newspapers, magazines, billboards, social networking sites, films, posters, leaflets, smartphone applications, and the internet) is essential (Wakefield, Loken, & Hornik, 2010). Media is the collection of means and technologies that use entire institutionalized structures, interfaces, forms, and formats to disseminate emblematic content. Media as a term or word is meant to be narrower than the concept of communication, however much broader than the media that have made up conventional media (Couldry, 2012). In this sense, the media must inevitably be a part of nowadays health communication campaigns. Health communication campaigns and programs concentrated on health promotion and prevention are on the agenda of many countries in the world. However, more attention and investments are required better to comprehend the best way to make health communication campaigns successful (World Health Organization [WHO], 2013).
Mass media plays a pivotal role in people’s daily lives (Berger, 2007). Its significance is apparent in the amount of time people spend reading newspapers/magazines, watching television/movies, surfing the internet, listening to music, and playing computer games. The dissemination of information by way of mass media is immediate and accessible around the clock. The quick global spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and especially the proliferation of smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), computers, and internet-enabled televisions lend to the ubiquity of the media in everyday life. From this point of view, the integrated approaches of health communication campaigns, social marketing, and media focusing on public health and behavioral change can form in more stable and consistent health behavior changes.
Social marketing is an approach used to change people's opinions, attitudes, and behaviors. In addition to this, social marketing is a proven tool to increase people's perceptions and awareness of health-related issues. Moreover, it stands out as a sustainable and cost-effective method. Therefore, this marketing approach has unique potential in terms of eliminating significant public health problems when used correctly (Evans, 2006). For example, health communication campaigns, including social marketing techniques, were first used in the 1960s to encourage the use of birth control pills in planned parenthood and to preventing tobacco use and facilitating smoking cessation (Mendelsohn, 1976).
In brief, proper use of the media tools and social marketing methods in terms of health campaigns by governments, healthcare providers, and other authorized organizations in the context of health promotion will contribute to gaining a significant advantage in fighting diseases and bad habits.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Media Toolkit: A social media toolkit is a kind of guide with the information needed to make a media campaign more effective. It contributes to the teamwork of health communicators and health service providers in the design process of online health communication campaigns.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): In its simplest form, ICT refers to the whole of technologies that facilitate communication for people. Accordingly, ICT comprises digital and telecommunication technologies/devices such as the internet and internet-enabled devices, satellite, television, radio, mobile phone, and personal digital assistant.
Watchdog: Some people working in the media sector, such as journalists, producers, and film-video editors, consider themselves watchdogs of government agencies or various other organizations. Therefore, they expect the authorized institutions to act transparently towards the public in terms of important decisions to be made in the field of health. If these people are restricted from access to information on some issues, they start to behave skeptically. As a result, they begin to investigate personal, political, and economic reasons that may cause the information to withhold from the public. In this study, the term watchdog is used to mean the role played by the media in health communication campaigns.
Public Service Announcement (PSA): A PSAs is an advertisement and promotion broadcast on public/private television, radio, or other communication media for community welfare. PSAs are used to raise awareness in health communication campaigns and other public health promotion initiatives.
Prime Time: Most watched hours of television. Disseminating informative health messages on televisions during prime time is beneficial in terms of delivering health communication campaigns to large masses.
Health Prosumer: In this communication age, with the increasing personalization of health, people have begun to take more responsibility for their own health. Correspondingly health prosumer means that individuals are both suppliers and consumers of their own health and care needs.
Health Promotion: Health promotion is the process and requirements that allow people to have more control over their health to lead a healthier life.