Psychology and health promotion
Robin Bunton, Gordon Macdonald in Health Promotion, 2003
The earliest health promotion initiatives adopted a ‘hypodermic’ model of behavioural change (Bennett and Murphy 1997), the roots of which can be found in theories of mass communication developed in the 1950s and 1960s, at Yale University in particular. These approaches assumed a relatively stable link between knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Therefore if information could be provided in a sufficiently persuasive manner and from appropriate sources, this would engender attitudinal change, which would in turn directly result in behavioural change. The assumption of a strong knowledge–attitude–behaviour link has been challenged by research and the relative ineffectiveness of programmes based on this premise. The limits of mass media campaigns are illustrated by Wimbush et al. (1998), who assessed the effect of a mass media campaign in Scotland designed to promote walking. Although awareness of the campaign was high (70 per cent), it had no impact on behaviour and of only 16 per cent who were aware of a telephone helpline, only 5 per cent utilized it. Researchers have however, continued to develop theories of mass communication whilst moderating the objectives of such approaches. Winett (1995), for example, argues for a change of goal, from that of behaviour to knowledge, whilst McGuire (1985) has argued for outcome effectiveness to be examined within a five step response: attention, comprehension, yielding, retention, and behaviour.
Health promotion: the challenges, the questions of definition, discipline status and evidence base
Ann Wylie, Tangerine Holt, Amanda Howe in Health Promotion in Medical Education, 2018
One of the key messages from these studies is the importance of developing strategic communications. The media are often key institutions and modes of mass communication in community studies. Some methods of communication of public health information only reach certain populations. The Stanford Five-City Project found it difficult to engage the local media in one of the intervention sites and as a result developed multiple channels of communication that did not exaggerate the knowledge behaviour gap in certain subpopulations. Maintaining the intervention for a long period is essential, given the Stanford Five-City Project, in its six years, exposed the population to a fraction of the amount of information messages they receive from normal television viewing but worked because the messages were targeted and sustained over a long period of time.28 The North Karelia Project found that changing lifestyles in the population is a slow and not always continuous process. They noted that changes were found to take place in stages, with plateaus in between, and new ideas for interventions were, as a result, constantly needed.29 The credibility of staff and their training to deliver intervention, their medical status and their ability to work in non-medical settings were vital to programme impact.
Recent and Emerging Trends
Gerry R. Cox, Neil Thompson in Death and Dying, 2020
Of course, the traditional mass media now have to be understood alongside social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and others – in what seems to be a continually growing list of platforms. Access to social media (in most countries) enables countervailing discourses – that is, discourses that present an alternative narrative to the dominant ideas that are commonly to be found in the traditional mass media. This offers the potential for more democratic forms of mass communication that do not necessarily have to pass through the filters of conventional media and thus reflect the interests of the powerful elite. It therefore opens doors to a far wider range of voices to be heard, although it would be naïve to see it as some sort of panacea for democracy, as power relations will still continue to operate in favor of dominant groups in various ways, of course.
Media coverage of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) in Kenya and Tanzania: Content analysis of newspaper articles in East Africa
Published in Cogent Medicine, 2021
Evonne Mwangale Kiptinness, John-Bell Okoye
Framing is a normal part of the communication process where communicators act to construct a particular point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be viewed in a particular manner, with some facts made more or less noticeable than others (Kuypers, 2010; Kiptinness & Kiwanuka-Tondo, 2019). According to its proprietor Goffman (1974), frames enable individuals to discover, recognize, identify, and label occurrences or information. The entire study of mass communication is based on the principle that the media have significant effects (McQuail, 1994). These effects determine how the public views situations, notably the coronavirus pandemic. When highlighting some aspect of reality over other aspects, frames act to define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgments, and suggest remedies.
Expanding syphilis testing: a scoping review of syphilis testing interventions among key populations
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2018
Jason J. Ong, Hongyun Fu, M. Kumi Smith, Joseph D. Tucker
We define new communication technologies as mass communication using digital technologies such as social networking platforms. Public campaigns through targeted messaging interventions have been used to increase syphilis knowledge and testing. These programs have focused on MSM and transgender people [110,113,114]. Mixed findings were reported. For example, a syphilis awareness public campaign targeting MSM in eight U.S. cities using social marketing approach reported an increased awareness of syphilis in some cities and increased syphilis testing associated with campaign participation [113]. However, the “Check Yourself “public campaign conducted in Los Angeles in the U.S. did not find a significant association between campaign awareness and syphilis testing in MSM [114]. Among technology-focused testing strategies, crowdsourcing is another approach to developing new syphilis testing campaigns. Crowdsourcing is the process of having a group solve a problem and then sharing the solution with the public [115]. Crowdsourcing has been used to solicit novel content for promotional images, videos, and HIV testing strategies. A stepped wedge trial randomized controlled trial evaluating this approach is underway and includes syphilis testing as a secondary outcome [116]. Cross-sectional data from this study suggested that dual HIV/syphilis self-testing promoted through the internet could be a feasible approach for increasing syphilis testing among MSM [117].
Is this what a lesbian looks like? Lesbian fashion and the fashionable lesbian in the United States press, 1960s to 2010s
Published in Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2020
Kelly L. Reddy-Best, Katie Baker Jones
The mass communication industry holds a unique power position in the construction, maintenance, and alteration of the major discourses within society. We view media as a socializing and enculturing institution that constitutes discursive limits within which a subject (e.g. a stylish lesbian or lesbian style) is understood (Gauntlett, 2008). Meaning potential is established through these representative discourses when processed through the reader’s worldview (Hall, 2013). “Representation, then, takes on the representative function of showing what a particular group is like to others and therefore has a public function” (Geraghty, 2000, p. 368). Thus, calls for better representation in popular media by marginalized groups (e.g. lesbians) acknowledges how media representation “affects how they see themselves and limits their own sense of possibilities” (Geraghty, 2000, p. 368). Lesbians have increasingly called for positive representations in the media to aid the public’s perception of their humanity and to downplay ‘otherness.’ However, one potential outcome is the media will create an avatar, essentializing lesbian identity into an easily recognized signifier, decreasing the possibility for a nuanced understanding of diverse lived experiences. We explored how the fashion press has, over time, helped to construct a social understanding of lesbian identity through the lens of personal style.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Behaviorism
- Media Psychology
- Media Culture
- Spiral of Silence
- Framing
- Qualitative Research
- Minority Influence
- Social Information Processing
- Echo Chamber
- Filter Bubble