Fundamentals of Public Communication Campaigns

CHAPTER 5 Health Communication Campaigns General Perspectives

Health communication campaigns are defined as approaches designed to convince or encourage audiences to modify their behavior so as to improve their health. They are directed at diverse audiences by adjusting behavior change goals so that they become applicable, suitable, and appealing to each audience targeted. Health communication campaigns must stipulate, as accurately as possible, the health behavior change that is wanted from a target audience when its members are presented with persuasive messages.¹ The behaviors advocated by campaigners should fall within the range of what can be achieved realistically by the audience.² In general, health communication campaigns promote the adoption of health-boosting behaviors or the decrease or rejection of risky ones. The desired action is identified from a meticulous analysis of the audience’s existing behaviors. To this point, apposite implementation of behavioral theories can help determine factors that can affect the targeted behavior change with respect to the current behavior.³

Health communication, in and of itself, is the discipline and application of communication strategies to inform and sway personal and community decisions that improve health. Health communication is a crucial method to inform the public about health issues and to keep them on the public agenda. The assistance of mass media and multimedia channels, and additional technologies to diffuse health ...