H571 – Communication Theories
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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
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Some Behavior Change Tools
• Education
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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
development
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Effective when citizens
are unlikely to change
on their own, and
society is unwilling to
pay the costs
associated with
risky/unhealthy
behavior
Marketing
• 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
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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
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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
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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 are
Relevant to Health Communication
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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