H571 – Communication Theories• Quiz

• Assignments #2 grades & #3 questions

• General introduction

• Christopher – Attributes & Reception-Yielding

• Swathi - Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Darcie – Social Marketing• Lauralee: Mass media effectiveness (Abroms & Maibach)

• Tara: Branding (Evans et al., 2008)• Alicia Changing policies (Freudenberg et al., 2009)

• Wrap-up

Some Behavior Change Tools

• Educationo Effective when goals of

society align with those of target audience Benefits are attractive,

immediate, obvious, low costs, skills/resources to change are available

• Law/policy developmento Effective when citizens

are unlikely to change on their own, and society is unwilling to pay the costs associated with risky/unhealthy behaviorMarketing

• Effective when goals of society and those of the citizens are not entirely consistent, but citizens can be influenced to change

HC is inherently Transdisciplinary

• Mass and speech communication

• Health education

• Marketing

• Journalism

• Public relations

• Psychology

• Politics and Policy

• Informatics

• Epidemiology

Over the past 20-30 years:

• How have mass media changed?

• How has public health changed? – hint: the “new” public health

• How have health behavior theories changed?– Hint: Ecologies

• What are some of the effects of all of these changes?

Some Changes in Past 30 Years

• Broadcast Narrowcast

• Rise of the internet – www.

• Rise of social media

• Reduction of the role of “Gatekeepers”

• Rise of ecological models

• Move from people to places

Importance of Context

• Advances in technology have changed the communication landscape.

• An ecological perspective of communication defines reflexive creators and consumers of information rather than just senders and receivers.

• These creators/consumers are embedded in a system influenced by social structures, history, and politics.

• In the context of health promotion, communication strategies are used to persuade and affect changes in knowledge, attitudes, norms and self-efficacy, based on the assumption that these underlie behavior choices.

Student Presentations

• Christopher – Attributes & the Reception-Yielding Model

• Swathi - Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Darcie: Social Marketing• Lauralee: Mass media effectiveness (Abroms

& Maibach)

• Tara: Branding (Evans et al., 2008)• Alicia Changing policies (Freudenberg et al.)

• Me again – Summary comments

Ecological and Multilevel

• Tailored messages at the individual level

• Targeted messages at the group level

• Social marking at the community level

• Media advocacy at the policy level

• Campaigns at the population level

Multiple Health Behavior Theories areRelevant to Health Communication

• Theory of Reasoned Action

• Theory of Planned Behavior

• Health Belief Model

• Information, Motivation, Behavior Model

• Protection Motivation Theory

• Social Cognitive Theory

• TTI

• Communication-specific models

Societal-level Theories I• Social conflict and change• Media as agents of social change and media’s

role in social movements/conflicts• Media are responsive to other forces in the

system• Media messages reinforce dominant values –

social control• Media are “guard dogs,” neither “lap dogs” nor

“attack dogs”• Media advance the interests of social

movements – media advocacy

Societal-level Theories II• Knowledge-gap hypothesis

– High SES people more responsive to new information

• Agenda-setting hypothesis– Selective coverage sets public priorities

• Spiral of silence– Media “framing” can communicate the impression that

one view is more acceptable than another, thus silencing the other

• Cultivation hypothesis– Persistent and sustained exposure cultivates the

audiences view of the world (e.g., exposure to smoking or sex or violence in movies)

Implications for Health Promotion Practice

• A variety of communication strategies and tools can be used in health promotion practice; the key is understanding in which context to apply each one.

• Key considerations include audience characteristics, what channels they use most, who they trust, and what information they find salient.

Elements of Good/Effective Health Communication Campaigns

• Goal-oriented attempts to inform, persuade or motivate behavior change

• Ideally aimed at the individual, network, organizational and community/societal levels

• Aimed at a relatively large, well-defined audience• Provide non-commercial benefits to the individual

and/or society

• Occur during a given time period, which may range from a few weeks to many years

• Involve an organized set of communication activities

Three Elements of Effective Campaigns

• Mass Media

• Interpersonal Communication

• Community Events

This combination has proven to be the most effective in public health campaigns