Lewis Belinda - Health Communication: A Media and Cultural Studies Approach

Health Communication

Health Communication

A Media and Cultural Studies Approach

Belinda Lewis

Monash University, Australia

Jeff Lewis

RMIT University, Australia

Belinda Lewis and Jeff Lewis 2015

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First published 2015 by

PALGRAVE

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ISBN 9780230298323

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Printed in China

Contents

List of Illustrations

Figures

Tables

Plates

Boxes

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the following people for use of their materials: Margaret Whitehead for and Fred Kroh as the photographer.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of Monash and RMIT universities, and the Australian Research Council. Thanks also to the following people who have provided feedback and assistance Amberlee Laws, Arvind Singhal, Ben Smith, Di Winkler, Frances Doran, Heather Robertson, Helen Hall, Kate Carmichael, Kirsten Millman, Kirsty Best, Louise Farnworth, Meagan Down, Paul James, Rob Donovan, Sharyn Crawford and Tsharni Zazryn.

Thanks to Kate Llewellyn and others in the Palgrave team who have supported this project over a long period. We also thank each of the four academic reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

We express particular appreciation to Sian Lewis for her outstanding contribution to the development, writing and editing of this book. Your intelligent and thoughtful perspectives were essential to every part of this project. Thanks also to Jay Lewis whose constant support and encouragement have been invaluable. Thank you to Meg, Arthur, Geraldine, Anne-Marie, George, Frances, Ian, Jeremy and Gezza, the wild-eyed kelpie, our parents and all members of the family. Your friendship and love have carried us through.

Introduction

This book is about communicating for health and social change. It is focused on working with media, culture and communities to bring about changes to the conditions of peoples lives, to improve their opportunities for health and contribute to a more equitable and healthful society.

The book brings the perspectives of contemporary media and cultural studies to the field of health communication. It outlines and explains the contribution that media and cultural studies has to offer students, scholars and practitioners of health communication in the context of public health and health promotion practice.

Moving beyond the focus on conventional approaches, this book elucidates the central role of media and culture in health communication. It explores the complex and dynamic world of the mass media and interactive, digital media environments to offer new insights into the challenges and opportunities for communicating about health. Through its thematic approach, the book lays out key theories and critical debates in media and cultural studies and, using a diverse range of practical case studies, illustrates how these may usefully inform health communication scholarship and practice.

Aims of this book

In this book, we offer an introduction to media and cultural studies perspectives. We show how their insights offer ways of understanding how health is being communicated in contemporary contexts not just in terms of information and education, but as communities and cultures through a diverse range of sources, influences and actions. We use this approach to open up discussions about the place of the media within the meanings and practices of peoples everyday lives.

Cultural studies provides a sophisticated approach to understanding the complex dynamics of culture and social change and the ways this is mediated in contemporary societies. Rather than thinking of cultural studies as an alternative approach, we see it as a complement to other approaches already being used in health communication. Furthermore, by using a media and cultural studies approach as a lens to examine how we communicate in our health communication interventions, we have new tools to help explain their success and failures in addressing complex public health issues. These new perspectives can help us to explore the opportunities and challenges of working with media to generate social change and to build on the strengths of existing strategies.

We hope that the discussions in this book will offer new insights and an original contribution to theory and practice in health communication. In the process of being read, studied and critiqued by students, researchers and practitioners, we hope it will forge new and innovative links between the academic disciplines of health communication and media and cultural studies.

Structure of the book

presents a range of practical approaches for health communication: social marketing, participatory communication, community media-making, entertainment-education, community activism and public health advocacy. Each chapter is focused on a different approach, with strategies and skills explained using practical examples and insights from experienced practitioners.

We have structured this book so that the theoretical discussions in the earlier chapters of the book ( ). Each approach is discussed in a separate chapter, covering