scholarly journals Social Aspects of Health Communication – Towards a Research Agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. I-IV
Author(s):  
Sarah Geber ◽  
Tobias Frey ◽  
Thomas N. Friemel

Health and health-related behaviours are embedded in social contexts in various ways which comprise both risks and opportunities for health communication. We propose a research agenda on social aspects of health communication and introduce the articles of the present special issue. Owing to the complexity of individuals’ social contexts, the research agenda addresses questions lying at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. The issue’s articles cover different and highly relevant questions of this research agenda, ranging from stigmatisation to impression management to collective action and from experimental designs to qualitative interviews and netnography. In sum, the articles demonstrate not only the diversity but also the relevance of academic research on social aspects of health communication. We expect that this topic will continue gaining importance, given the ongoing digitalisation of the media environment and the increasing interconnectedness of producers and users, doctors and patients, and experts and laypersons.

Author(s):  
John G. Wilson

In this chapter, we investigate the recent situation concerning the seduction of consumers by advertising and the media. A new plethora of media-organised conglomerates is attempting to monopolise our attention and steer our emotions, opinions and choices towards increased consumption through imposed wants in the interest of gross profits for a semi-invisiblised few. Herein we consider: the colonisation of public places (advertising), the work/spend cycle, increased work at the cost of leisure; impression management, status-conscious and conspicuous consumption, reflective versus pre-reflective thinking in consumer choices, the early recruitment of children, how human emotions can become the fuel of overconsumption, class-based emotions and fashion consumption, obsessions with body image, the evasion and silencing of criticism by the corporate media. The approach is one founded in critical theory - a perspective that describes the individual as reciprocally constituted by the society in which she lives, rather than as a passive entity existing prior to socialisation. It seeks to reveal the seduction of our subjectivities (running marketing strategies ‘from within') as contrasted with the value-free, ‘objective' approach of much contemporary social psychology. Contemporary theoreticians in sociology and consumer studies, including Pierre Bourdieu and Juliet Schor, are cited along with deeper philosophical perspectives from the earlier philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, complete with references from contemporary books and journals.


Author(s):  
Wesley Kaufmann ◽  
Richard F J Haans

Abstract Public administration scholarship is facing a crisis of legitimacy, as academic research is viewed as both increasingly irrelevant for practice and methodologically underdeveloped. In this study, we put forward a so-called collocation analysis approach, which is a useful tool for studying the meaning of key concepts in public administration and (re)focusing academic research agendas to salient societal problems by identifying how concepts are talked about in different domains. To illustrate our approach, we assess the meaning of red tape in academia, policy-making, and the media. Our dataset consists of 255 academic articles, 2,179 US Congressional Records, and 37,207 US newspaper articles mentioning red tape. We find that red tape has specific connotations in each domain, which limits the extent to which these domains are being bridged. Using the insights from our analysis, we develop a red tape research agenda that aims for more relevant and rigorous knowledge generation and conclude by setting out implications and ways forward for public administration research at large.


Author(s):  
Mohan Jyoti Dutta ◽  
Satveer Kaur-Gill ◽  
Naomi Tan

Cultivation theory examines the effects of the media, mainly television on viewer perception over an extended period of time. Television is seen by people throughout the globe, with many spending considerable amounts of time watching the medium. The act of watching television has been described as the first leisure activity to cut across social and ethnic divisions in society. This made it a unique mass media tool because mass message dissemination to diverse groups in a population was made possible. Cultivation scholars have studied the effects of the medium, trying to understand how television content can alter one’s social reality. Heavy viewers are considered to be most susceptible to the effects of cultivation. The reality of these effects poses important questions for health communication scholars considering the role television plays in disseminating health messages. Health communication scholars became interested in studying cultivation to understand the health-related effects the medium could have on viewers. Understanding the health effects of television is pivotal, considering that television and the structures that constitute television content set the agendas for many health topics, often disseminating negative and positive messages that can impact society, especially the young and impressionable. With television content addressing health issues such as nutrition, diet, body image, tobacco, cancer, drugs, obesity, and women’s health, cultivation theory can offer health communication scholars a framework to understand how health behaviors are shaped by the mass media and the roles these media play in reinforcing unhealthy behaviors. By establishing a basis for studying how such portrayals have direct health-related effects on viewers, cultivation theory creates openings for questioning the structures of the media that put out unhealthy content and for interrogating the roles and responsibilities of media agenda in inculcating positive health messages. Directions for future research include looking at contextually contrasting populations that share different cultural and community values, and different ways of consuming television. Research questions exploring the roles of community structures with different sets of subjective norms, or with different roles of community norms, in the realm of cultivation effects offer new areas for exploration.


Author(s):  
Tomoko McGaughey ◽  
Janae Vlaar ◽  
Patti-Jean Naylor ◽  
Rhona M. Hanning ◽  
Lucy Le Mare ◽  
...  

The transition from elementary to secondary school is an emotionally and socially complex time when adverse behaviors appear, such as decreased levels of physical activity (PA). Behavioral and environmental factors that influence PA during this time are poorly understood. Therefore, we aimed to identify factors that influence PA as adolescents transition to secondary school. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 27 ethnically diverse child–parent dyads within the public-school system in British Columbia, Canada (50% boys, 68% mothers, 25% White). The interviews probed for environmental and behavioral factors in school, family, and social contexts that potentially initiated changes in PA, specifically related to the adolescents’ transitions. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analyses identified factors at the individual, social, familial, and school levels that may trigger adolescents to change their participation in PA as they transition from elementary to secondary school. Twenty-two factors emerged from the qualitative analysis including school factors (8), household factors (3), social factors (4), and intrapersonal factors (7). These findings contribute to a better understanding of adolescents’ PA behaviors and highlight the influence of changing environments as they transition from elementary school to secondary school.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hobbins

In Sweden, as in most Western societies, a common belief is that unemployment is somehow linked to the individual, her lack of work ethic, or other personal shortcomings rather than to structural causes. This is not only manifested in public arenas such as the media or political debates but also in our social surroundings. In recent years, these views have gained importance, indicating a shift in the location of responsibilities from the welfare state to the individual. This shift entails high demands and expectations on unemployed people and is something they have to deal with and relate to. One of the most exposed groups is young long-term unemployed. The aim of this article is to highlight how the discourse of individualized responsibility is reflected in unemployed peoples’ stories, and to shed light on the ways in which young long-term unemployed adults relate to and position themselves toward this discourse. Based on 18 qualitative interviews with young Swedish long-term unemployed people, the findings show three approaches to the discourse: conformity, distancing, and resistance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hobbins

In Sweden, as in most Western societies, a common belief is that unemployment is somehow linked to the individual, her lack of work ethic, or other personal shortcomings rather than to structural causes. This is not only manifested in public arenas such as the media or political debates but also in our social surroundings. In recent years, these views have gained importance, indicating a shift in the location of responsibilities from the welfare state to the individual. This shift entails high demands and expectations on unemployed people and is something they have to deal with and relate to. One of the most exposed groups is young long-term unemployed. The aim of this article is to highlight how the discourse of individualized responsibility is reflected in unemployed peoples’ stories, and to shed light on the ways in which young long-term unemployed adults relate to and position themselves toward this discourse. Based on 18 qualitative interviews with young Swedish long-term unemployed people, the findings show three approaches to the discourse: conformity, distancing, and resistance.


Author(s):  
Amy Hasselkus

The need for improved communication about health-related topics is evident in statistics about the health literacy of adults living in the United States. The negative impact of poor health communication is huge, resulting in poor health outcomes, health disparities, and high health care costs. The importance of good health communication is relevant to all patient populations, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Efforts are underway at all levels, from individual professionals to the federal government, to improve the information patients receive so that they can make appropriate health care decisions. This article describes these efforts and discusses how speech-language pathologists and audiologists may be impacted.


Author(s):  
S. V. Akmanova ◽  
L. V. Kurzaeva ◽  
N. A. Kopylova

The harmonious existence of the individual in the modern informational era, which is overly saturated with rapidly developing media technologies, is almost impossible without the developed readiness of the individual for lifelong continuous self-education. The formation and development of this readiness can begin during the formal training at the stage of higher education of the person and continue during informal education throughout his future life. Stages of socialization and professionalization of the person have a great influence on the level nature of this readiness. Based on scientific achievements in the field of self-education of university students, national and world media education, we developed dynamic and competence models of media educational concept of developing a person’s readiness for lifelong self-education. The concept demonstrates interconnection of these two models, as well as consistency with the previously developed normative model of developing this readiness.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104-109
Author(s):  
Chernysh O.O.

The urgency of the researched problem is connected with the growing role of mass media in modern conditions leads to change of values and transformation of identity of the person. The active growth of the role of the media, their influence on the formation and development of personality leads to the concept of “media socialization” and immutation in the media. The aim of the study is to outline the possibilities of the process of media socialization in the context of immutation in the media. The methods of our research are: analysis of pedagogical, psychological, literature, synthesis, comparison, generalization. The article analyzes the views of domestic and foreign scientists on the problem of immutation in the media and the transformation of the information space. In the context of the mass nature of the immutation of society, the concept of “media socialization” becomes relevant, which is the basis for reducing the negative impact of the media on the individual.The author identifies the lack of a thorough study of the concept of “media socialization” in modern scientific thought. Thus, media socialization is associated with the transformation of traditional means of socialization, and is to assimilate and reproduce the social experience of mankind with the help of new media.The article analyzes the essence of the concepts “media space”, “mass media” and “immutation”. The influence of mass media on the formation and development of the modern personality is described in detail.The study concluded that it is necessary to form a media culture of the individual, to establish safe and effective interaction of young people with the modern media system, the formation of media awareness, media literacy and media competence in accordance with age and individual characteristics for successful media socialization. The role of state bodies in solving the problem of media socialization of the individual was also determined. It is determined that the process of formation of media culture in youth should take place at the level of traditional institutions of socialization of the individual.The author sees the prospect of further research in a detailed analysis and study of the potential of educational institutions as an institution and a means of counteracting the mass nature of the immutation of society.Key words: immutation, media socialization, mass media, media space, information.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Morales

The problem of identity is an issue of contemporary society that is not only expressed in daily life concerns but also in discourses of politics and social movements. Nevertheless, the I and the needs of self-fulfillment usually are taken for granted. This paper offers thoughts regarding individual identity based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. From this perspective, identity is not observed as a thing or as a subject, but rather as a “selfillusion” of a system of consciousness, which differentiates itself from the world, event after event, in a contingent way. As concerns the definition  of contents of self-identity, the structures of social systems define who is a person, how he or she should act, and how much esteem he or she should receive. These structures are adopted by consciousness as its own identity structures; however, some social contexts are more relevant for self-identity construction than others. Moral communication increases the probability that structure appropriation takes place, since the emotional element of identity is linked to the esteem/misesteem received by the individual from the interactions in which he or she participates.


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