Public Communication Campaigns Research Articles

The influence of risk perceptions on close contact frequency during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Human behaviour is known to be crucial in the propagation of infectious diseases through respiratory or close-contact routes like the current SARS-CoV-2 virus. Intervention measures implemented to curb the spread of the virus mainly aim at limiting the number of close contacts, until vaccine roll-out is complete. Our main objective was to assess the relationships between SARS-CoV-2 perceptions and social contact behaviour in Belgium. Understanding these relationships is crucial to maximize interventions’ effectiveness, e.g. by tailoring public health communication campaigns. In this study, we surveyed a representative sample of adults in Belgium in two longitudinal surveys (survey 1 in April 2020 to August 2020, and survey 2 in November 2020 to April 2021). Generalized linear mixed effects models were used to analyse the two surveys. Participants with low and neutral perceptions on perceived severity made a significantly higher number of social contacts as compared to participants with high levels of perceived severity after controlling for other variables. Our results highlight the key role of perceived severity on social contact behaviour during a pandemic. Nevertheless, additional research is required to investigate the impact of public health communication on severity of COVID-19 in terms of changes in social contact behaviour.

Exploring the Motivational Roots of Getting Vaccinated against COVID-19 in a Population of Vaccinated Pediatric Healthcare Professionals: Evidence from an Italian Cross-Sectional Study.

Health care professionals (HCPs) working in pediatric and perinatal settings have a strong influence on parental vaccine decision making. Furthermore, HCPs’ motivations behind vaccine acceptance are associated with their likelihood of recommending vaccines to their patients. Understanding these motivations in the context of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign may aid in the development of interventions that improve pediatric practitioners’ vaccine confidence and prescription. We aimed at studying the motivations affecting COVID-19 vaccination behavior among a sample of vaccinated Italian HCPs working in pediatric settings. A sample (n = 162) of HCPs completed an online self-reported survey exploring motivations behind getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Emotions of HCPs at the moment of COVID-19 vaccination injection were also recorded to collect data about the main feelings connected to the vaccination decision-making process. Data were collected between 19 March 2021 and 21 April 2021. The most effective motivational incentives were the beliefs that vaccination helped protect vulnerable members of the community (97.5% agreement), could protect one’s own health (93.7%), health authorities could be trusted (58.7%), and the vaccine had been rigorously tested (53.8%). Actual personal exposure to COVID was less important (reported importance agreement 16–24%), and the influence of news and social media was still lower (4–6%). Differences between physicians’ and other HCPs’ ratings were also found. Finally, emotional status at vaccination showed high ratings for positive emotions surrounding the vaccination act. This study provided additional evidence about the multifaceted motivations behind COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and showed the potential of understanding the psychosocial roots of vaccine behaviors for shaping public communication campaigns. The highly emotionally charged response obtained underscores the importance of strengthening the community feeling among HCPs.

Effectiveness of Electricity-Saving Communication Campaigns: Neurophysiological Approach

Public communication campaigns are among the tools for promoting electricity saving. A crucial task in the process of creating a campaign is to design a simple message to effectively reach the average consumer. It is a beneficial practice to create alternative messages and pretest them to find the most effective. The research methodology during pretesting includes both quantitative and qualitative methods. However, it is believed that the outcomes obtained with the use of conventional techniques are not fully reliable. Therefore, the following question arises: What additional research methods should be applied at the stage of testing the message of a communication campaign so that its effectiveness can be assessed more reliably and/or improved even before its broadcast? In this study, we aim to present the possibility of applying cognitive neuroscience methods in conjunction with a questionnaire to experimentally check the effectiveness of the message using the example of selected electricity-saving communication campaigns. The key results of this study indicate that merging conscious and subconscious reactions to media messages allows us to gain new knowledge that can be used in the future to improve the communication campaign effectiveness. Our investigation showed the benefits that can be obtained by synergizing traditional research methods with neuroscientific approaches.

Theoretical Approaches of Health Campaigns and Practical Applications to COVID-19 Campaigns

Public communication campaigns are the focus of this contribution, especially in the field of health, that fulfill an important function in today’s civic society by informing the public about risky behaviors like AIDS, tobacco, alcohol, drug abuse, obesity or currently in the field of COVID-19. In addition they are stimulating preventive behavior in domains like increasing physical activity, healthier nutrition or keeping distance because of COVID-19, but also in areas like traffic safety or environmental protection. But they also try to alter non-healthy risk behaviors like smoking or too much drinking. Especially the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020 hit the health systems of all countries hard and almost all health ministries or departments of public health started to develop and implement COVID-19 communication campaigns together with technical and legal interventions like vaccination. Based on a system model with focus on problem analysis, definition of goals, selection of target groups, development of campaign messages, and empirical campaign evaluation, it is the goal of this contribution to focus on public health campaigns and its underlying theoretical perspectives like information seeking, cognitive dissonance theory, activation and entertainment-education, social cognitive theory, persuasion research or approaches from health sciences. Based on this background of relevant communication theories, the contribution is asking: What have we learned from theory to optimize health campaigns and especially COVID-19 campaigns?

Are Anti-Prostitution Advertising Campaigns Effective? An Experimental Study

Many governments invest public funds in communication interventions and campaigns against prostitution and sexual exploitation in an attempt to change attitudes toward prostitution and eventually decrease its consumption. Despite the considerable investment that public institutions have made in campaigns against prostitution and sexual slavery, no known empirical studies have evaluated the effectiveness of such campaigns on attitudes and behavioral change. The messages of these campaigns usually center on one of two thematic focuses: Prostituted women who suffer exploitation and male consumers of prostitution. The present study examines the impact of different anti-prostitution advertisements on attitudes among male participants (N = 155 male participants). Specifically, the experiment aims to test the differential effect of these two focuses, compared to a no-advertisement control condition, on social support for prostitution, negative and incorrect beliefs about prostitutes, and family values related to prostitution. The results show that compared with the no-advertisement control condition, advertisements focused on men who use prostitutes have a significant effect on social support toward prostitution and incorrect beliefs about prostitutes, whereas advertisements focused on female prostitutes have no effect. The results have practical implications for governments and councils regarding the efficacy of this kind of public communication campaign against prostitution consumption.

Social norms and prevention behaviors in the United States early in the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The current study assessed how social norms were associated with the three effective Covid-19 prevention behaviors of social distancing, handwashing, and wearing protective face masks during the early stages of the pandemic in the US. Study participants were recruited online. Data from the present study was from a baseline quantitative survey administered from March 25th−27th, 2020. The 808 study participants were recruited for a longitudinal study online. Eligibility requirements included age 18 or older, living in the United States, English speaking and reading had heard of the Coronavirus or Covid-19, and provided informed consent. The three outcome variables were handwashing, mask wearing, and social distancing. Injunctive and descriptive norms were assessed. The injunctive norm of perceiving friends would find them rude if they did not affiliate with them because Covid-19 was associated with all three outcomes in both the bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models with adjusted odds ratios ranging from (aOR) = .80 for handwashing to aOR = .63 for social distancing and aOR = .77 for mask wearing. The descriptive cognitive norm of friends worrying about becoming infected was associated with all three outcomes in the bivariate analysis but only mask wearing in the multivariate models (aOR = 1.74). The study findings suggest there are strong social factors that correlate with behaviors to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. These findings also suggest that public health communication campaigns should focus on more than heightening risk perceptions. They should include attention to social norms and perceptions of social risks to significant others.

Peran komunikasi publik dalam menanggapi gelombang disinformasi Covid-19

Disinformation has reduced public confidence in the government and scientists in handling Covid-19. These conditions hamper the overall handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the context of responding to a global pandemic, disinformation greatly affects the country's response to a global pandemic by undermining trust, creating fear, and sometimes leading to harmful behavior. It is important for policy makers to understand disinformation and how to respond to it. This study uses a literature review approach with data sources coming from several documents that have been verified and have a relationship with the object of study. The stages of the study start from choosing a review topic, finding and selecting appropriate articles, analyzing and synthesizing the literature, and finally presenting a review of the study. the results show that the government should have official information channels with verified, transparent, sustainable and fast sources of information. The government must also provide clear and definite information through official channels and trusted media. The government must also ensure the consistency of information. In addition, the government must maintain a transparent pattern of communication about the situation, actions and risks it takes. The aim is to restore public trust in public institutions, in information that has been conveyed by the government to the public as well as guidelines that have been provided by the government to the public, such as health protocol guidelines and the last is "Pre-bunk", or be aware of the potential for disinformation before occurred, as part of a public information and communication campaign.

CENTRALISTIC REFORM: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TAX REFORM CAMPAIGN IN THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF TAXES

The Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) has been running a tax reform program to enable a comprehensive transformation in the taxation system to create a strong, credible, and accountable tax institution. This program enhances equitable taxation and an excellent and integrated data expansion to increase tax revenues. The discourses on tax reform are primarily promoted on DGT communication channels, including its online social media. This discourse leads to a likely impact of a partial taxation system. Thisresearch aims to analyze the discourse of tax reform on the online social media of DGT using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis based on texts on online media as the primary data. It was revealed that DGT conveys messages about tax reform in three ways: tax reformation as a public communication campaign, discourse of Indonesia taxation transparency, and discourse of taxation in the Directorate General of Taxes to face the 4.0 industrial revolution. DGT conveys these three discourses according to its work scope as a state institution that constantly strives for making transformations through its programs that are carried out based on the provisions of the umbrella institutions, including the vision and mission of the President. In this case, the President’s vision and mission are inseparable from the demands of the times, international pressure, the history of the nation, and social changes in society.

"You have to vape to make it through": E-cigarette Outcome Expectancies among Youth and Parents.

Objectives: Outcome expectancies are central to explaining health behavior and have been shown to predict tobacco use. Research on outcome expectancies for e-cigarette use among youth is scarce but increasingly important given the growing rates of use, particularly of high-nicotine pod devices and the recent outbreak of e-cigarette related lung disease. Methods: In 2019, we conducted 3 focus groups with middle school youth (N=25), 5 with high school youth (N=38), and 4 with parents (N=27). Youth and parents were not related and groups included both users and non-users. Participants discussed reasons for e-cigarette use and bad and good things that might happen to a person who vapes. Results: Participants described positive and negative psychoactive/sensory, social, and health-related outcome expectancies. Both youth and parents mentioned stress relief and appearing older as positive outcome expectancies, and e-cigarette flavors, acting rebellious, and structural opportunities as other reasons for initiating e-cigarette use. Social consequences and health outcomes were negative outcome expectancies deterring use. Conclusions: Regulations and public communication campaigns can counteract the positive outcome expectancies (flavor regulation, providing stress reduction tips) and capitalize on negative ones (communicating negative health outcomes) to decrease youth e-cigarette use.

Seasonal cues to food scarcity and calorie cravings: Winter cues elicit preferences for energy-dense foods

Winter cues signal a scarcity of food. Birds and mammals respond to such environmental cues by consuming more energy. They convert this surplus into body fat that serves as a buffer against impending food shortages. Similarly, humans exhibit higher obesity rates among food-insecure populations. However, to date, it has been unclear whether winter cues qualitatively affect consumers’ food preferences. Results from five studies (N = 865), with one of them preregistered, show that watching videos depicting winter cues elicits thoughts about energy-dense foods and survival. Such cues elicit higher preferences for energy-dense than low-calorie foods, as verified by meta-analytic evidence, with this effect likely differing between women and men. Taken together, our results support an evolutionary account postulating that humans have developed sex-specific responses to perceivable cues of food scarcity. As a result, winter cues induce people to favor products they deem higher in calories. Given the importance of limiting energy-dense food consumption for addressing environmental and public health issues, policymakers and marketers should be aware of this phenomenon when designing public communication campaigns.

Unmasking COVID-19 Vaccine “Infodemic” in the Social Media

The activities of the anti-vaccine crusaders and conspiracy theorists on social media platforms have influenced billions of people across the globe on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines currently been used for immunizations. The increased social media mis/disinformation on the efficacies and safety of these vaccines developed have raised a global concern among all stakeholders. This study adopted a convenience sampling through an online survey to collect data from N=1800 participants (students) from five (5) public universities in Accra the national capital of Ghana, which is also the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine their perceptions on the overabundance COVID-19 pandemic information on social media and how these pieces information consumption impacts their trust/mistrust/distrust in the COVID-19 vaccines. The findings of our study indicate that there exist vital levels of COVID-19 vaccines “infodemic” on social media and these overabundances of COVID-19 vaccine information on social media has caused great levels of fear and panic among the students and the public. We also found that, the high exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information on social media are associated with negative perceptions and higher levels of mistrust/distrust among the population. This study recommends that stakeholders such as WHO, policymakers, and accredited health institutions must embark on public health communication campaigns to educate the public on the credible sources of COVID-19 pandemic information on social media.

Good night: Experimental evidence that nighttime curfews may fuel disease dynamics by increasing contact density

BackgroundNighttime curfews have been discussed and implemented in many countries as a means of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is evidence that such curfews have little or no effect on disease dynamics when other measures such as bans on gatherings or business and school closures are already in place. There are two possible explanations for this. First, nighttime curfews may elicit reactance—a feeling of anger that drives non-adherence; second, nighttime curfews may motivate people to shift activities from night to daytime, thereby increasing contact density. MethodsA survey experiment was conducted with German participants (N = 997) to investigate public perceptions of nighttime curfews and possible detrimental effects on contact behaviors. ResultsMost participants perceived nighttime curfews as ineffective. The introduction of a hypothetical curfew did not affect intentions to reduce private contacts but instead elicited reactance, motivating participants to violate curfew hours or to shift a fictitious dinner meeting to an earlier time rather than cancelling it. ConclusionsWhen people do not support nighttime curfews or do not understand the rationale behind them, introduction of this measure may fuel the spread of the disease. For that reason, nighttime curfews should be a measure of last resort and should be accompanied by a public communication campaign explaining the importance of contact reduction during both nighttime and daylight hours.

Changing Systems That Influence Birth Outcomes in Marginalized Zip Codes.

* Abbreviations: ECEP — : early childhood education provider FIMR-CAT — : Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Community Action Team GMCHL — : grassroots maternal and child health leader HP — : Healthy People IMR — : infant mortality rate MCH — : maternal and child health SDOH — : social determinants of health SSWG — : Safe Sleep Work Group Indiana’s government is prioritizing the reduction of the state’s persistently high infant mortality levels. Despite improvements in overall state and Black infant mortality rates, high rates persist within Indianapolis zip codes, characterized by multigenerational poverty and underrepresented minorities (Table 1). These rates occur in the presence of high-quality health care and home-visiting programs working to address the leading causes of infant death (birth defects, preterm birth and low birth weight, maternal pregnancy complications, and sudden unexpected infant death).1 Numerous studies, however, link infant mortality to underlying root causes associated with the social determinants of health (SDOH).2–4 Addressing the SDOH requires sustainable improvements in social systems that influence women’s health and birth outcomes. Our work complements the work of health care by building the capacity of individuals and organizations within targeted zip codes to remove social inequities that impact birth outcomes. View this table: TABLE 1 Indiana Urban Zip Codes With Persistently High Infant Mortality Rates, 2014–2018 Our work with families motivated and informed our approach. First, many families have experienced infant mortality across multiple generations. Second, even with public communication campaigns focused on prenatal care, safe sleep practice, and women’s health, many residents are unaware of the leading and root causes of poor birth outcomes. Third, residents are not aware of the linkages between social demographics and poor birth outcomes. Fourth, neighborhood networks within communities are often insular; likewise, policy-making networks are insular. There is a need to merge community and policy networks to facilitate dialogue and share realities and solution strategies. Finally, … Address correspondence to Nancy L. Swigonski, MD, MPH, MBA, FAAP, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Indiana University, 410 W 10th St, Suite 2000, Indianapolis, IN 46202. E-mail: nswigons{at}iu.edu

Tools fo ensuring the efficiency of communicative activity of non-governmental organizations (ngos)

Problem setting. The rapid development of modern society requires the creation of new forms of cooperation and mutual understanding and requires new forms of communication, which will be characterized by even greater efficiency, openness, transparency, efficiency and quality. The total penetration of communication into all spheres of public life actualizes its significance and functional role.
 Modern transformational processes taking place in society necessitate the creation of responsible institutions of civil society, which include public organizations that act as a mediator between the community and the state. The level of public trust in them depends on the effectiveness of communicative activities of NGOs because successful communication is the basis of constructive dialogue between public organizations and society.
 Recent research and publications analysis. Ukrainian scientists study various aspects of the activity of NGOs, in particular, the development of mass and civil communication, public relations are studied in their works of such domestic scientists as: E. Afonin, V. Bebyk, M. Bilynska, O. Valevskyi, T. Vasilevskaya, N. Hrytsyak, N. Hudyma, V. Hurkovskyi, O. Dmytrenko, L. Klymanska, M. Lohunova, D. Nelipa, I. Panteleichuk, O. Petroye, G. Pocheptsov, O. Pukhkal, V. Rebkalo , V. Rizun, E. Romanenko, A. Savkov, S. Seryogin, G. Sytnyk, S. Teleshun, I. Chaplai and others.
 Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. Understanding the general features and trends of the development of public organizations, as well as the establishment of their effective internal and external communicative activity, require more detailed consideration and detailed study.
 The paper aims at theoretically substantiating the tools for ensuring the effectiveness of communicative activities of NGOs as a basis for open and rational dialogue in a consolidated society.
 Paper main body. The issue of improving the communicative interaction of public organizations with government bodies and the media does not disappear from the agenda of either government agencies or public associations.
 The effectiveness of communication of public organizations in Ukraine depends primarily on the literacy of their communication campaigns, which implies the presence in NGOs of communication strategies, which involve high-level professionals with many years of practical experience.
 Today, the participation of Ukrainians in the social movement and the trust in the institutions of the third sector and their influence on the development of society and community are growing. The results of the study showed that the efficiency of communicative activities of NGOs directly depends on public confidence in them.
 Social networks are a unique platform for consolidating different groups of actors based on the commonality of their interests, and as a result of communicative interaction, there is a large-scale synergetic effect. This way of showing civic activity can be considered the most efficient and widespread.
 The article considers the advantages and risks of the use of social networks by public organizations in the communicative activity of the public sector, outlines several rules of communication in social networks for public organizations.
 The article states that the effectiveness of communication of NGOs also depends on cooperation with journalists and the choice of audience. The quality of feedback and the level of public trust in NGOs depend on the ability to convey relevant information to the audience in a timely and high-quality manner.
 We should not underestimate the growing role of public organizations in the consolidation of society, a necessary condition for which is the creation of a single information space. National consolidation will be successful when the state policy in this area is complemented by the activities of civil society institutions, their effective internal and external communication activities.
 In our opinion, there is a necessity to establish consolidated communication as a process of multifaceted communication within society through various communication channels and tools to strengthen, unite, integrate and pull together society to form a common coherent approach to solving societal problems.
 Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. Effective NGOs, as an element of civil society, are the catalyst for its development. Every NGO, since its inception, seeks to plan its activities in such a way as to achieve its goals in the shortest possible time, to become known, to influence public opinion. This area is an important factor that affects the necessity for communicative interaction between the state and civil society.
 Among the tools for ensuring the efficiency of communicative activity of NGOs, we consider it appropriate to name: the presence of feedback and the level of public confidence in them; literacy of public communication campaigns; correct use of social networks in the communicative activity of the public sector; establishing active cooperation with journalists; definition of the target audience; use of modern communication formats; selection of communication channels that correspond to the target audience; establishing consolidated communication.
 Further research in this direction should be aimed, in particular, at an in-depth studying of consolidated communication as a major factor in the consolidation of Ukrainian society.

Urban bike and pedestrian activity impacts from wildfire smoke events in Seattle, WA

IntroductionClimate change is leading to increasingly severe wildfires across the United States. Over the past several years, these events have led to extreme, persistent smoke events in several urban areas across the western U.S. However, the health impacts of smoke events on urban communities are not well understood. Impacts to physical activity, including active transportation, may be a useful proxy to understand physical and mental health effects of these events. We aimed to examine the impact of wildfire smoke events, determined by fine particulate matter concentrations and administrative reporting, on physical activity, measured by pedestrian and bicycle counts at eight city counters in Seattle, WA, USA. MethodsWe assessed for differences in daily average bicycle and pedestrian counts between pre-, during- and post-wildfire smoke periods for two wildfire smoke events in Seattle in the summers of 2017 and 2018. ResultsThe 2018 wildfire smoke event significantly decreased daily average bicycle counts by 14.6–36.0% across the 8 counters, and 31.7%–45.2% across the two pedestrian counters. There were no significant changes in use during the 2017 event, with the exception of a significant decrease in counts at one pedestrian counter. ConclusionsUrban physical activity and active transportation may be significantly impacted by future wildfire smoke events, with cascading public health consequences. Differences in impacts across the 2017 and 2018 events may be related to increased intensity of smoke, and/or to enhanced public health messaging by state and local agencies. Additional research is needed to better understand the impact of wildfire smoke on physical activity in urban communities, and to assess and inform public health risk communication campaigns to change behavior during these events.

Zika virus public health crisis and the perpetuation of gender inequality in Brazil

BackgroundIn 2015–2017, the Americas experienced a highly consequential epidemics for pregnancy and childbearing. Mainly transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, but also through sexual intercourse, the Zika virus poses the risk of congenital Zika syndrome to fetus, which includes microcephaly and other child development complications. When a public health crisis taps directly into reproductive health, typically a feminine realm, responses to the emergency may exacerbate deeply-rooted gender norms. This paper investigates the role of gender in two relational contexts: (a) the government-led response to the pandemic in terms of communication campaigns aimed at preventing Zika infections; and (b) an individual level of response to the emergency, concerning women’s negotiation with their sexual partners with regard to the prevention of Zika as well as pregnancies.MethodsWe conducted content analysis of 94 unique pieces from public health communication campaigns produced by governmental agencies with the goal of promoting Zika awareness. Print and online materials were collected from May 2016 to August 2017, and included TV ads, Internet Pop-ups, and pamphlets. We also analyzed transcripts from 16 focus groups conducted with reproductive-aged women (18–40) in Belo Horizonte and Recife, two large cities differently affected by the Zika outbreak. Women answered open-ended questions connected to the epidemic, in areas such as personal knowledge and experiences with the Zika virus, experiences of their friends and acquaintances, their primary information sources, their perceptions of public health efforts toward containing the outbreak, as well as women’s contraceptive use.ResultsCampaign pieces handling pregnancy and microcephaly were largely gendered. Pieces targeted women, placing on their shoulders the responsibility for protecting a potential fetus from the disease. Importantly, campaigns neglected addressing male’s participation on Zika prevention and contraceptive management, while failing to take into account Brazil’s large proportion of unplanned pregnancies. Women were placed in a double bind by being expected to prevent both pregnancy and Zika, in a context where gendered power imbalances often translate in women having little power/means for condom negotiation/avoiding unprotected sexual intercourse.ConclusionGovernment and individual responses to the epidemics reinforced gender roles, situating pregnant women as responsible for averting mosquito bites and microcephaly. Further, prevention campaigns largely excluded men. Since low-socioeconomic status women possessed fewer resources to preclude infection, we also found that beyond the gender divide, this subgroup faced more pronounced Zika prevention challenges as they found it harder to negotiate condom use with their sexual partners and often could not access other types of contraceptives resulting in unplanned pregnancies.

Public communication for the fight against syphilis: an experience report of the campaign “Eu sei. Você sabe?” (2020-2021)

Introduction: Aiming at strengthening the discourse about syphilis prevention and promoting organic actions with strategies directed to digital communication platforms, the campaign “Eu sei. Você sabe?” (“I know. Do you?”) was developed and placed between mid 2020 and early 2021, within the scope of the project “Sífilis, não” (‘Syphilis, No’). Objective: In this article, we aim to report the planning and execution of this public communication campaign to combat syphilis by reflecting on the aspects of conception, strategic and creative planning, and placement of the campaign. Methods: The reflection was anchored in a descriptive study and in the report of this experience through a scientific narrative, considering the guidelines established in the planning and the period of execution (still under development). Results: The results of this campaign include the production and placement of various materials for digital circulation to disseminate content, such as cards (posts) for different social media websites in different formats; layouts for posters, banners and handouts (printed and digital); institutional website; card videos; sound spots; layouts for digital booklets and newsletters, among others. Conclusion: From the point of view of planning and production, the goal of the campaign was to contemplate the diversity of audiences with actions and materials, by adapting imagery, language and communication channels. It is not yet feasible to measure the reach or the audience size and response, although we can project it as positive in view of its context.

A Challenges of Adopting Local Visual Contents in Awareness Campaigns for Control of Communicable Diseases

This paper asserts that public awareness creation and raising (ACR) adopting local-visual-evidences (LVE) have already been established by studies as an effective health communication strategy that can be employed to alleviate the outbreaks of communicable diseases. The purpose of the paper is to establish the major challenges of effective implementation of this important risk communication strategy. This study was informed by relevant good practice, lessons learned, and the results of previous studies on awareness creation (AC) with a focus on communicable diseases in Nigeria. This review examined the probable prospects and challenges of adopting LVE-based AC contents to provide policymakers, public health, and safety agencies accessible information for effective decision-making options. The preliminary findings revealed that the use of LVE-based AC information services or contents is not favourable for the patients, their families, or friends when appropriate precautions are not taken. The same also applies to the government, public awareness communication campaigners or content designers, and their development partners or sponsors. However, the paper found that LVE-based public awareness communication campaigns would be effective in curbing the outbreaks of communicable diseases if effectively conducted at the community level. It is highly recommended that public awareness communication practitioners, governmental and non-governmental organisations, involved in communicable disease management and prevention, know that participatory community engagement leads to higher awareness for behaviour change. The study proposed a LVE Adoption Pattern to guide decision-makers in crisis situations.

Toward More Effective Public Health Interventions during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Suggesting Audience Segmentation Based on Social and Media Resources

ABSTRACT In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health communication campaigns have been targeted at reducing viral transmission, specifically among populations most vulnerable to infection and death from the virus (e.g. older adults). However, other individuals who have not been defined as vulnerable populations may also suffer from a decrease in health because of the measures aimed at reducing viral transmission, such as social distancing. To illuminate this issue, we investigate the role of social and media resources in complementing limited offline communication and supporting mental and physical health during this pandemic. We then suggest an alternative audience segmentation strategy based on social and media resources for public health interventions. Based on online survey data from 723 adults in South Korea, the regression analysis results indicated that individuals with lower levels of social resources suffered more during the pandemic. The cluster analysis results revealed that, contrary to the traditional definition of vulnerable populations, a cluster of younger people were unhealthier than a cluster of older people because of a lack of social resources. Clusters with different levels of ICT skills and uses for health-related activities also experienced the pandemic differently. These findings imply public health interventions should focus on social resources beyond the demographic factors to determine target audiences, and that they should take advantage of the target audiences’ media resources to encourage them to forge intimate connections with others and to engage in health-related activities.

Public communication campaigns as mundane category

This article examines the public connection and understanding of public communication campaigns. Public communication campaigns are widespread, but the audience dimension of the campaign category itself is still a blind spot in research. Drawing on focus group interviews and a survey among Danish citizens, the article shows that public campaigns are recognized as a mundane communicative category. Moreover, drawing on theories of public connection and governmentality, we show how citizens receive and resist, accept and negotiate public campaigns.