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.

Health is a contested concept that has been defined in numerous ways. The media is extremely powerful in promoting health beliefs and in creating role models for contemporary people. The ways in which health is defined or understood can have wide-ranging implications and can have an impact on issues such as health promotion or health literacy. Health presentation in the media has a significant social impact because this type of message is important in changing people's beliefs, attitudes and behaviours relating to health and in promoting health-related knowledge among the target audience. The present volume provides an interdisciplinary and multicultural contemporary approach to the controversial link between medicine and media. The authors that have contributed to this volume analyse the media and medicine from different perspectives and different countries (USA, UK, Portugal, Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico, Estonia, Romania), thus offering a re-positioning of the study of media and medicine. The new perspectives offered by this volume will be of interest to any health communication or media studies student or academic since they bring to light new ideas, new methodologies and new results.

Participatory Health through Social Media explores how traditional models of healthcare can be delivered differently through social media and online games, and how these technologies are changing the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals, as well as their impact on health behavior change. The book also examines how the hospitals, public health authorities, and inspectorates are currently using social media to facilitate both information distribution and collection. Also looks into the opportunities and risks to record and analyze epidemiologically relevant data retrieved from the Internet, social media, sensor data, and other digital sources. The book encompasses topics such as patient empowerment, gamification and social games, and the relationships between social media, health behavior change, and health communication crisis during epidemics. Additionally, the book analyzes the possibilities of big data generated through social media. Authored by IMIA Social Media working group, this book is a valuable resource for healthcare researchers and professionals, as well as clinicians interested in using new media as part of their practice or research. - Presents a multidisciplinary point of view providing the readers with a broader perspective - Brings the latest case studies and technological advances in the area, supported by an active international community of members who actively work in this area - Endorsed by IMIA Social Media workgroup, guaranteeing trustable information from the most relevant experts on the subject - Examines how the hospitals, public health authorities, and inspectorates are currently using social media to facilitate both information distribution and collection

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.

`This book appears to fill a substantial gap in the literature at present. There are, quite simply, no books available which engage seriously and competently with the presentation of health issues in the media, and certainly none which focuses on representations of health and illness in as thematically coherent a manner as Seale proposes to do′ - Richard Gwyn, University of Cardiff `This is an excellent resource for students. It provides a comprehensive review of secondary literature in the field and is very well researched. Students of sociology of health and illness and in media and communication studies will find the book invaluable′ - David Oswell, Goldsmiths College, University of London `This is a comprehensive work on media health, providing an invaluable "toolkit" for understanding health and the media in contemporary society. Seale goes further than previous textbooks, critiquing the "lament" of media health promoters in order to explore the moralisation and commercialisation of media health′ - Dr Annette Hill, University of Westminster How are health matters presented by the mass media? How accurate are the messages we are receiving? This book demonstrates how health messages in popular mass media are important influences in our lives, and that they are not neutral, being subject to many determining influences. It demonstrates the importance of mass media for understanding the experience of illness, health and health care, bringing together the latest thinking in the field of media studies and the sociology of health and illness. This book provides a thorough review of research literature on media representations of health, illness and health care, covering their production, characteristic forms and relationships with the everyday lives of media audiences. It brings together both well known and lesser-known studies in the context of an integrated, sociological argument about media and health. Media producers are subject to a variety of influences, from medical lobbies, scientific organizations, and not least the commercial pressure to satisfy media-saturated audiences. These mean that aims of health promoters are not always easily achieved, leading to considerable tensions that require a deeper understanding of media health than has hitherto been applied to them. This book will be essential reading for health educators and promoters, as well as health care providers interested in the cultural aspects of health, sociologists of health and illness, and students and academics of media studies.

"This is a timely discussion of using new information technologies and media for communicating diverse health information to diverse audiences. This book is useful, readable, current, well organized, and seems to be a unique contribution." --Doody's "In this volume there are examples of how advances in technology not only empower individuals in their interactions with a health system but also enable health professionals to better tailor their work and time for the benefit of patients and clients." -Paul R. Gully, MB, ChB, FRCPC, FFPH,World Health Organization, Geneva Switzerland (From the Foreword) To date, little guidance exists for health care professionals who want and need new ways to communicate health information with each other, their patients, and the general public. To address this need, Health Communication in the New Media Landscape presents innovative, media-based methods of communication to graduate students, educators, health care professionals, public health officials, and communication experts. Health Communication in the New Media Landscape demonstrates the extent to which modern, digital technology can serve as the most practical and efficient form of distributing health-related information. The authors are confident that, if implemented wisely, technology can and will transform the face of health communication as we know it. This unique book addresses the following: The role technology can and will play in health communication How new media can be used to improve health literacy How patients can learn about health-related issues and health care New ways practitioners will be able to communicate with their patients How persons with chronic diseases learn about resources, support systems, and rehabilitation The impact of the new media landscape on health care providers, insurance companies, and health care policies

Health Communication and Mass Media is a much-needed resource for those with a professional or academic interest in the field of health communication. The chapters engage and expand upon significant theories informing efforts at mediated health communication and demonstrate the practical utility of these theories in on-going or completed projects. They consider how to balance the ethical and efficacy demands of mediated health communication efforts, and discuss both traditional media and communication systems and new web-based and mobile media. The book's treatment is broad, reflecting the topical and methodological diversity in the field. It offers an integrated approach to communication theory and application. Readers will be able to appreciate the ways that theory shapes health communication applications and how those applications inform the further construction of theory. They will find practical examples of mediated health communication that can serve as models for their own efforts. While the book serves as an introduction to mediated health communication for students, professionals, and practitioners with limited experience, researchers and advanced practitioners will also appreciate the exemplars and theoretical insights offered by the chapter authors. This book will be of interest to anyone involved in health communication programs or more generally with communication and allied studies, as well as to those in the health professions and their related fields.