Media Messages and Public Health addresses the full range of methodological and conceptual issues involved in content analysis research, specifically focused on public health-related messages and behaviors. Uniquely tailored to the challenges faced by content researchers interested in the study of public health topics, coverage includes: Conceptual and methodological foundations involved in the practice of content analysis research used to examine public health issues. Measurement challenges posed by the broad range of media. Use of content analysis across multiple media types. The potential for individual differences in audience interpretation of message content. Case studies that examine public health issues in the media to illustration the decisions that are made when developing content analysis studies. The volume concludes with a set of guidelines for optimal content analysis research, and suggests ways in which the field can accommodate new technologies and new ways of using media. Developed for researchers in communication, media, and public health, this unique resource demonstrates how the variety of decisions researchers make along the way allows the exploration of traditions, assumptions and implications for each varying alternative and ultimately advances the science of content analysis research.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Successful communication can help to prevent health problems, promote healthy behaviors and lifestyles, and overcome health challenges. However, various issues have created obstacles for the promotion of health communication, including low health literacy, the reluctance of patients to admit their lack of understanding, the overestimation by health professionals of a patient’s level of understanding, and insufficient health literacy tools, to name a few. It is thus essential to convey the latest communication models and practices being used to increase health literacy and provide adequate health information to society. Health Communication Models and Practices in Interpersonal and Media Contexts: Emerging Research and Opportunities explores and analyzes the fundamentals, models, and dimensions of health communication and offers practical solutions for better communications with direct outcomes in the optimization of citizens’ health literacy. The book also discusses and proposes more effective health communication models and practices as a tool for the construction of more solid and evident health outcomes. Covering topics such as cancer prevention, health professionals’ communication, and models of health communication, this text is essential for health professionals, communication professionals, professors, teachers, researchers, academicians, and students.

This volume showcases new approaches to studying public health in traditional and emerging media, suggesting that we need more analyses that focus on the production of media and on power dynamics, as well as studies of audience reception of media messages. The collection asks a variety of questions about the role of media in analysing public health. Contributors ask: who is influential in producing the stories we see in the press and on social media? Who benefits, and who is damaged, by media debates on health topics? They investigate the role of big business in seeking to shape public opinion and consumption in print and online media; how issues such as hand washing come to be framed over time by newspapers; how conflicts over immunisations get covered; how health promotion messages do their work; and the positive role of online media in helping foster drug safety. Together, they reach the conclusion that since mass media is a crucial element of civic society, more in-depth understanding of how it works and what impacts it has on public health is essential. Given the crucial role of the media in shaping health debates, pushing certain issues up the policy agenda, defining problems for audiences and presenting potential solutions, this book’s analysis will be of interest to all those studying how the media shape policy, as well as public health researchers with an interest in mass communication. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critical Public Health.

Designed for master’s level study, Public Health Communication: Critical Tools and Strategies will prepare new graduates for any entry level position in public health policy/advocacy, health communication, health promotion, social marketing, or community health education. Filled with practical examples, the book is also a valuable resource for those preparing for the CPH or CHES exams. Students will learn core concepts for planning a communication framework as well key strategies for educating the public about health issues including understanding and reporting science, communicating for policy and advocacy, and health literacy and numeracy. The book thoroughly explores classic theories of persuasion in communication such as Extended Parallel Process Model, Inoculation, Sensation Value, and Cognitive Value. The most current forms of digital/multimedia/interactive channels of communication are examined.

This text is appropriate for anyone who has taken an introductory research methods course and it includes updated coverage of report writing, validity issues, study retrieval and evaluation of research studies.

This book explores the unique contribution that critical communication studies can bring to our understanding of health. It covers several broad themes: representing and mediating health; marketing and promoting health, co-producing health; and managing health crises and risks. Chapters speak to moral and social regulation through health communication, technologies of health, healthism and governmentality. They engage with historical and contemporary issues, offering readers theoretically grounded perspectives. At base, the book explores what a critical communication approach to health might look like, revealing in important—and sometimes surprising—ways how communication sits at the centre of understanding how health is constructed, contested, and made meaningful.