HEALTH COMMUNICATION

Health communication is process by which people became aware about health issue. This health related massages people will get from experts. To make a successful a communication program it must be based on the desire of the audience. Clear communication is essential to successful public health practice at every level of the ecological model; intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational. To help with planning and developing a health communication program, National Cancer instute have divided the process into four stages:

1. Planning and Strategy Development;

2. Developing and Pretesting Concepts, Messages, and Materials;

3. Implementing the Program; and

4. Assessing Effectiveness and Making Refinements.

(Source-www.cancer.gov)

The stages constitute a circular process in which the last stage feeds back into the first as it work through a continuous loop of planning, implementation, and improvement.

Behavior Change Communication (BCC):

BCCis a process of working with individuals, communities and societies to:

- develop communication strategies to promote positive behaviors;

AND

- Provide a supportive environment which will help people to get positive behaviors.

Different target groups will require different approaches. Therefore, when making decisions about which target groups and which factors to address, it is necessary to consider:
 which target groups are most vulnerable;

 which risk / vulnerability factors are most important;

 which factors may be related to the impact of conflict and displacement;

 which target groups and risk / vulnerability factors the community wants to address;

 what could be motivators for behavior change;

 what could be barriers to behavior change;

 what type of messages will be meaningful to each target group;

 which communication media would best reach the target group;

 which services/resources are accessible to the target group;

 which target groups and risk / vulnerability factors are feasible in terms of expertise, resources and time.

Source - Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Chapter 4: An approach to effective communication.)

A recent analysis by UNHCR of behavioral studies in a number of refugee camps found that the methodology often needed improvement.
“…Research and proper planning form the foundation of an effective communication campaign. Knowing the needs of the population and the best means of reaching that audience are crucial in achieving the goal of raising awareness and, ultimately, changing attitudes and behaviors…The key is to determine the needs and desires of the audience, then deliver messages and products that offer real benefits. Many social change campaigns fail because the message is not meaningful or relevant and consequently not motivating to members of the target audience…” (Source - Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Chapter 4: An approach to effective communication.)

PORTRAIT of WOMEN in BANGLADESHI MEDIA

Women of Bangladesh are running forward with enthusiasm and eagerness. Basically in media, where few years back only a small number of women work now the area is changed drastically. It’s encouraging that females are coming ahead. But the question is; are they playing the role of policy maker? Is it the picture of whole Bangladesh? And the answer will without any doubt ‘NO’. Still all the big post is grabbed by male because a common picture of thinking is are women able to play the key role, whereas they are doing very good job. Outside of Dhaka only few newspaper and other media office has few female journalist where they are not able to do the job. The attitude of the guardian are also affected their children to chose it as a profession. In electronic media women’s are portrait as a only a product for an example in the promotion program of ‘Bablu tooth pest’ in NTV, it was hard to notify which one is the commodity the female models or the tooth pest.

SOCIAL MARKETING:

Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote society's well being as a whole (source-Wikipedia). For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow speed limits.So Social marketing implies the technique of marketing to sell their social commodities among the community people to make awareness against any harmful activities. And their aim is to change the behavior according to their product.
4ps of social marketing:

Here let’s imagine a society where we work as ‘B’ organization. And our goal is to bring change the behavior towards smoking. And it’s obviously a trail version-

Place: Any city of Bangladesh.

Product: Anti-smoking chocolate.

Price: Free for trail version.

Promotion: The procedure will be made aware of the product and its availability as well as the evil effect of smoking and thus the awareness will make the society members be going to accept the product..

Entertainment education:

Entertainment education is the process to make people conscious about a specific issue. And it is known as the most effective and easiest way to provoke people about the concerning matter. To promote entertainment education both media advocacy and social marketing can be used as a tool to informed people the information. There are several examples of entertainment education in our country, they are- Sisimpur, Best shot.
Sisimpur:

it is a puppet show for children education. It is on air in every Friday in the morning. Producers set the goal as to teach different manners, how to build playing stuffs, education related gossip including many information to educate our children.
Best shot:

it is a movie related program on RTV. The team work for educate people as well as to create interest among the people about compact cinema. They show different best clips with film aesthetics and film language to make people aware about cinema.

MEDIA ADVOCACY

Media advocacy refers to the policy change alliance with mass media. In addition, the change is related to community development focusing issues on health, social, environment, education sector etc. Media advocacy are not work for individual change; it is working for the change of social environment.

ELEMENTS OF MEDIA ADVOCACY

• Object’s goal to create awareness

• Target audience

• An existing massage for mass people

• Looking for opinion leaders, famous personalities, religion leaders etc who can create pressure on law maker

• Alliance with mass media

Issue:

• Many young people are drag addicted.

• Policy maker:

• The government

• Strict law for drag dealers as well as for the addicts

• Looking for a person or group of people for an example rich, dominant class of the society who have the power to motivate the lawmaker

Policy key:

• To control the fair the law should be implementing strongly. Make barriers or arrested the drag dealers and addicts on the spot can be an effective solution. In this case, DMP (DHAKA METRO POLITAN POLICE) can apply this policy firmly. A formal proposal can be send to the police commission to finalize. To persuade the people mass media can play a crucial role. To expose the problem mass media can be an effective support. Involving mass media the people will acknowledge about the government policy. The police will be more conscious about their work.

Implication of adoption or not adoption the policy:

• Involving the police we have to notice whether the law is maintaining strictly or not. The addicts as well as the dealers are obeying the policy or they are trying to convince the police to help them. In this case, govt. should have a law for police also.

Recognized the issue:

• Through the mass media, people will get to know about the law. If the mass audience knows the fact, they will become conscious about drags. The common people will be benefited, if the police maintain the law.

Policy consensus:

• The mass people will come forward to observe the law. The law is made for their own betterment. They will consensus with the action of the police.

Message source:

• The mass media will be television, newspaper, radio, hanging leaflet inside the vehicle.

Effective mass media:

• Most people love to watch Television. It also broadcast news event. To convey the policy message the mass media should scroll the news repeatedly on air. They can also have an aggressive social message. Through televisions, the problem can expose visibly. Hanging leaflet inside the vehicle can be successful medium.
• Proper plan and direction can be a successful project. Media advocacy works for the community. The plan and preparation has to be sketched before implementing. For a successful change in the society and to win the attraction of the audience media advocacy plan and preparation should be followed systematically.

Sunsmart Victoria: Skin cancer

In 1980, Cancer Council Victoria launched the Slip! Slop! Slap! campaign. It featured a singing, dancing Sid Seagull encouraging people to reduce sun exposure. This successful program was funded by public donations.

By 1988, SunSmart, a broader, multi-faceted skin cancer control program, had been introduced with support from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and Cancer Council Victoria.

Today the sun protection message has expanded to Slip! Slop! Slap! Seek! Slide! We seek to influence individual sun protection behaviours, those with responsibilities for protecting others and broader environmental change. SunSmart has also taken a leadership role by promoting a balance between the risks of skin cancer from too much sun exposure and maintaining adequate vitamin D levels.


Research


SunSmart is an evidence-based health promotion program. The results of research are used to guide program development and activities are regularly evaluated.
Researchers at the Cancer Council Victoria's Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer contribute to the evidence base by studying behaviours and what encourages people to be sun smart.

Future directions
SunSmart aims to continue building for past successes. A strong research base provides clear direction for interventions that most effectively reduce skin cancer among Australians.

In coming years their future direction:
1.lobbying for increased funding for public education campaigns, especially television advertising

2.investing in initiatives for adolescents and young adults given their low compliance with sun protective measures and higher sunburn incidence on summer weekends

3.focusing on settings and activities where people mostly get burnt, including sport, water/beach-related activities and active and passive recreation

4.improving environmental protection strategies, such as shade audits, options for built and natural shade and promoting the SunSmart UV Alert

5.ensuring a tailored response with sections of the community more likely to be at risk of vitamin D deficiency

6.continuing to deliver core activities such as working with schools, early childhood services,

Media campaign

From the early days of raising awareness and providing sun protection advice, media messages have evolved to meet public demand for harder hitting campaigns.

1.Clare Oliver's No tan is worth dying for campaign (2008) [mpg 3M]
2.Go to the Protect yourself in 5 ways national campaign (2007-08)
3.Tattoo campaign: Skin cancer its killer body art (2004/05) [wmv 1.18M]
4.Timebomb campaign: Every time you get sunburnt you are putting a time bomb under
5.your skin – time bombs that can turn into skin cancers (2000/01) [wmv 1.23M]
6.How to remove a skin cancer campaign (1996–98) [wmv 1.53M]
7.Leave your hat on campaign for a look at sun protection in the nineties (1991–93) [wmv 1.49M]
Slip! Slop! Slap! Sid Seagull campaign (1980s) [wmv 2.1M]

Achievements

Twenty years of commitment and partnerships with government, commercial and community agencies has seen changes in social norms and health including:

1.decreased rates of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer in young people
2.Victoria becoming the national leader in solarium legislation across Australia
increased use of hats and sunscreens, reductions in sunburn and a decrease in people's desire for a tan.

Focusing on awareness, education and structural and environmental approaches to sun protection.

Over the next 20 years, is predicted to:
1.prevent 1,900 premature deaths
2.reduce the number of cases of melanoma by 20,000
3.reduce non-melanoma skin cancer by 49,000.

SunSmart is not only about sun protection. It's an investment in prevention that brings health and economic benefits to Victoria.


Reference: ="http://www.sunsmart.com.au