Effective Health Communication for Sustainable Development (Public Health in the 21st Century)

The health communication strategies presented in this book are based on the understanding that there are many factors underpinning health. Starting from a framework of addressing health at an individual, group, and structural level, we need to realize the impact of globalization and social determinants on health. Health literacy and media literacy are necessary for health communicators and stakeholders to communicate effectively about/on health. Knowledge and skills in media technology, especially new media, new developments in the Internet and mobile devices are important. In addition, intercultural communication is essential to understand and collaborate with others. Health communication needs collaboration from all sectors in society. The health communication promoted in this book is based on a participatory model based within the multiplicity paradigm. Strategies suggested in this book are practical examples to encourage the reader to design his/her own strategies to serve a particular community. Before one can devise a strategy for health promotion and disease prevention, one needs to understand that a top-down communication approach cannot change nor sustain peoples health behaviors. On the contrary, one needs to create an enabling environment or a context that supports an individuals decision to change their behavior. How to achieve sustainability in health or health for all is ultimately what this book is about. In nine chapters, the reader is introduced to the history and discourses of health communication and sustainable development; the first part provides the reader with an in-depth overview of the many health communication theories, set in the context of globalization and localization and assessed from both anthropological and sociological perspectives. In the second part of the book, chapters systematically explain communication for/about health for sustainable development in general, as well as regarding old and new traditional and digital media in particular. The concluding chapters present the principles and applications of health communication strategies for sustainability. Sustainability in health can only be achieved once health equality is a reality. About the Author Dr Patchanee Malikhao is a Sociologist with competencies in mass communication research and graphic arts research. She has a variety of research interests ranging from communication for sustainable social change, over health related areas such as HIV/AIDS, mindful journalism, Buddhism and social communication, globalization and culture, intercultural communication, to Thai culture and communication. She has worked and received special trainings as a tutor, lecturer, instructor, researcher, and writer in the fields of Communication for Social Change, research and development in electronic prepress systems and the graphic arts industry, and sociology of the media, culture, and communication in the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, the US, Hong Kong, and Thailand, her home country. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Queensland, Australia; a Master's of Science in Printing Technology (currently called Print Media) from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York; a Master's of Art in Mass Communication from the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand; and a Bachelor's of Science (Hons.) in Photographic Science and Printing Technology from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. She was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, the Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship, and a distinguished award in printing studies from the Tab Nilanidhi Foundation, Thailand.