Spanish-Language Community Radio as a Resource for Health Promotion Campaigns Targeted to Farmworkers and Recent Immigrants

Abstract

This report describes findings from recent audience research on the impact of health promotion campaigns conducted by Radio Bilingue, a Spanish-language community public radio network. The discussion includes estimates of audience size and analysis of the station’s ability to reach the population targeted in the health promotion campaigns: low-literate farmworkers, recent immigrants, and the parents of pre-school age children. The authors conclude that station identity and communication style play a crucial role in catalyzing listeners’ discussion of health topics with family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. This, in turn, has important implications for developing health promotion strategies and designing media campaigns directed to Latino immigrant populations.