Use of Media in Promoting Policy Change

Use of Media in Promoting Policy Change

The media strategies shape public opinion, perception, and views on a health situation, health policy, or disease. Media platforms are great sources of health education (Stellefson et al., 2020). Media campaigns have been noted to influence health behaviors at an individual level (Schwartz & Woloshin, 2019). For instance, research by Fleary et al. (2018) noted that media campaigns improved health literacy among adolescents and influenced their health behaviors with an impact on public health. Online media platforms influence mothers’ attitudes toward the vaccination of their children, therefore making it a great tool to promote vaccination and clear misinformation on vaccines (Melovic et al., 2020). Another instance of the use of media to promote health agendas and influence health behaviors has been evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic (Arora & Grey, 2020). Online media was used to promote the adoption of recommended health behaviors, such as social distancing, to manage the spread of COVID-19 infections (Bonell et al., 2020). Social media also plays a critical role in promoting physical activity (Hayes, 2020).

However, media campaigns can be negatively used in healthcare promotion, negatively impacting public health. Notably, media campaigns have promoted and generated negative views on certain health policies. For instance, the use of Twitter against Obamacare provided the polarizing effects of media campaigns on the creation of negative sentiments on policies (Mendez et al., 2018). Media campaigns can be a source of health misinformation which can lead to a failure in efforts to promote health initiatives and policies (Schillinger et al., 2020). Misinformation remains a great challenge in public promotion (Southwell et al., 2019). For instance, misinformation and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic led to fear, panic, and noncompliance, leading to increased infections (Melki et al., 2020).

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 References

Arora, T., & Grey, I. (2020). Health behavior changes during COVID-19 and the potential consequences: A mini-review. Journal of Health Psychology, 25(9), 1155–1163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320937053

Bonell, C., Michie, S., Reicher, S., West, R., Bear, L., Yardley, L., Curtis, V., Amlôt, R., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). Harnessing behavioral science in public health campaigns to maintain ‘social distancing’ in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: key principles. J Epidemiol Community Health, 74(8), 617–619. https://doi.org/10.1136/JECH-2020-214290