Health

Communication

Abraham Tamirat
([Link].& PhD Candidate)
JIMMA UNIVERSITY, ETHIOPIA
 ARISTOTLE THE COMMUNICATION
RESEARCHER

Aristotle said, “Rhetoric falls

into three divisions,
determined by the three
classes of listeners to
speeches. For of the three
elements in speech-making
— speaker, subject, and
person addressed — it is the
last one, the hearer, that
determines the speech‟s end
and object.”

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 What is communication

• Communication is a broad science and an

imperfect art

• Remember Aristoteles' rule that a talk

(communication) should have ethos
(credibility), logos (logic) and pathos (the
art of communication)
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 Cont…
The word communication is derived from the
Latin word „communis‟ which means to form
a common ground of understanding, to
share information, ideas or attitudes and to
impart or transmit information.
 "If all my possessions were taken from me with
one exception, I would hope to keep my power of
communication--for by it I would regain all the
rest."
--Daniel Webster, American jurist

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 III. Relevance to Health Education
• It helps to

-mobilize the community,

-implement health education programs &

-coordinate with different agencies.

• The ultimate goal of all communication is to create

behavioral change.

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 IV. Principles of Communication
• Perception

• Sensory involvement

• Face-to-face

• Feedback

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 V. Communication Models

I) Linear (one –way) model

• The flow of information from the sender to the receiver is
one-way or unidirectional.

• The communication is dominated by the “sender‟s

knowledge”.

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 Communication Models…

Advantages Disadvantages
-Faster -Little audience participation
-Orderly -Learning is authoritative
-No feedback
-Does not influence behavior

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 Communication Models…

M R
S

One-way communication
N.B.
• Unless mechanisms are set to get feedback from the
audience many mass media communications are one-way.

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 Communication Models…
II) Systems (Two –way)

• Information flows from the source to the receiver & back

from receiver to the source.

• This is reciprocal in which the communicant becomes the

communicator & the communicator in turn becomes the

communicant.

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 VI. Communication Models…

Advantages Disadvantages

-More audience participation -Slower

-Learning is more democratic -Not orderly

-Open for feedback

-Influence behavior change

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 Communication Models…
Key
S =Source
M M=Message
S C
R R= Receiver
C=Channel
F F=Feed back

Two-way communication

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 VI. Communication Stages

• Special purpose of communication in health education

and health promotion–to promote improvement/change in
health through the modification of the human, social and
political factors that influence behavior.

• To achieve this objective, a successful communication

must pass through several stages.

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 Communication stages…
SENDER RECEIVER
Reaches senses
Gains attention
Message understood
Acceptance/change
BEHAVIOR CHANGE
CHANGE IN HEALTH

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 Stage1. Reaching the intended
audience
• Communication can not be effective unless it is seen or
heard by its intended audience.
• Communication should be directed where people are
going to see or hear them.
• This requires sound study of your intended audience to
find out where they might see posters, listening & reading
habits are.

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 Stage 1…

• A common cause of failure in this stage is preaching the

converted .

e.g.

• posters placed at the clinic or

• talks given at antenatal clinics.

• These only reach to the people who are already motivated

& attended the service.
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 Stage 2. Attracting the audiences
attention
• Any communication must attract attention so that people will
make the effort to listen and read it.
Examples of failure at this stage are:
• Walking past the poster without bothering to
look at it;
• Not paying attention to the health talk or
demonstration at the clinic;
• Turning off the radio programs or switching over.

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 Stage 3. Understanding the message

• Once the person pays attention to a message he/she then

tries to understand it.

• The message should be perceived/understood as intended

by the sender.

• Message may misunderstood at this stage and cause

communication failure.

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 Stage 3…
Examples of failures at this stage can take place when;

• Complex language & unfamiliar technical words are used;

• Pictures containing complicated diagrams and distracting

details.

• Pictures containing unfamiliar/strange subjects.

• Too much information is presented and people can not

absorb it.

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Stage 3…

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Stage 3…

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 Stage 4: Promoting change
(acceptance)
• A communication should be believed & accepted.
• Credible sources enhance acceptance.

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 Stage 4…
• It is usually easier to promote a change when its effects
can be easily demonstrated.

• For example, ventilated improved pit latrines do not smell,

if people become green in color when they get HIV/AIDS

it is easier to promote change.

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 Stage 5. Producing a behavior change

• Communication should be resulted in behavior change

(change in KABP).

• However, a communication may result in a change in

beliefs and attitudes but still not influence
behavior/action. E.g lack of enabling factors to realize the
behavior

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 Stage 6. Improvement in health

• Communication should result in improvement in health.

• Improvement in health will only take place if the
behaviors have been carefully selected so that they really
influence health.
• If your messages are based on outdated & incorrect ideas,
people could follow your advice but their health would
not improve.

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Communication Stages Summary

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 VII. Communication Process

• The communication process is a system that involves an

interrelated, interdependent group of elements working
together as a whole to achieve a desired outcome or goal.

• It is not a linear process rather it is a cyclical process that

involve many elements.

• Communication process involves eight elements.

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Communication Process…

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Communication Process…

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 1. Source/Encoder

• The communicator is the originator of the message.

• The sender begins the communication process by forming

the ideas, intentions and feelings that will be transmitted.

• Sender are required to filter out the details that are

unimportant and focus on the most relevant information.
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 Source/Encoder…
• The source, or encoder, makes the decision to communicate.

• The source also determines the purpose of the message to

inform, persuade, or entertain.

• Source should determine how the message gets from the

source to the receiver.

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 Source/Encoder…
• First, the source must encode or create a message.

• That is, the information that the source wishes to convey

must be put into a form that can be sent to the receiver.

Qualities of source/sender

1. Empathetic-putting oneself in the position of others.

2. Credibility-particularly the messengers.

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 Source/Encoder…
• The messenger is the model appearing in the message
who delivers information, demonstrates behavior, or
provides a testimonial.

The source messenger is helpful in:

 attracting attention,

 personalizing by modeling actions and consequences and

 making message memorable.

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 Source/Encoder…

• Messenger credibility is enhanced by:

» Power
» Perceived expertise
» Perceived honesty
» Attractiveness
» Being similar to the target audience

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 2. Message

• Message is a piece of information, ideas, facts, opinion,

feeling, attitude or a course of action that is passed from
the sender to the receiver.

• It is the subject matter of communication-something that

is considered important for the audience to know or do.

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 Message…
• The code and content of the message should be
appropriate to the receiver and should be arranged in a
way that it looks attractive.

• The content (idea, innovation, or technology) should be

appropriate to the audiences.

• Treatment (arrangement, organization and presentation of

code and content) should look attractive.

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 Message…
• Message appeals: The way the content of the message could be
organized so that it can persuade or convince people.
1. Fear arousal appeal
• The message is conveyed to frighten people into action by
emphasizing the serious outcome from not taking action.
 Appropriate with people who have no schooling.
 Mild fear may be appropriate
 Too much fear is not appropriate

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Message…

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 Message…
2. Humors
• The message is conveyed in a funny way such as cartoon.
• Humor very good way of attracting interest & attention.
• It can also serve as a useful role to lighten the tension
when dealing with serious subjects.
• Enjoyment & entertainment can result in highly effective
remembering and learning.

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 Message…
3. Logical / factual appeal
• The message is conveyed to convince people by giving
facts, figures and information.
e.g. facts related to HIV/AIDS such as prevalence,
morbidity, mortality, route of transmission, etc.
• Logical appeals are good with a person of high
educational level.

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 Message…
4. Emotional appeal
• The message is conveyed to convince people by arousing
emotions, images & feelings rather than giving facts &
figures.
e.g. by showing smiling babies, wealthy families with
latrine etc, and associating with FP education.

• More influence a persons with less education.

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 Message…
Emotional appeal…

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 Message…
5. One sided message/appeals
• Only presents the advantages of taking action & does not
mention any possible disadvantages.
• One sided message may be effective:
1) If the audience will not be exposed to different views.
2) If the communication is through mass media-selective
perception.

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 Message…
6. Two sided message/appeals
• Presents both the advantages & disadvantages (pros‟ &
cons‟) of taking action.
• Appropriate if ;
• The audiences are literates.
• The audiences are exposed to different views.
• We are in face-to-face with individuals or groups.

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 Message…
7. Positive appeals

• Communications that ask people to do something, e.g.

breast feed your child, use a latrine.

8. Negative appeals

• Communications that ask people not to do something, e.g.

do not bottle-feed your child, do not defecate in the bush.

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 [Link]/medium

•The channel is the way through which a message is

sent out.
•It is the physical bridge or the media by which the
message travels between source and receiver.
•It is also called the medium of communication.

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 Channel/medium…

• The commonest types of channels are audio, visual,

printed materials or combined audio visual & printed
materials.

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 Channel/medium…

Criteria: Channel selection

• Availability

• Cost

• Users‟ preference and receivers‟ access

• Adaptability to the communication purpose/objective

• Adaptability to the message content

• Type of recipient and their stage in the adoption process

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 4. Receiver/decoder – „audience‟

• The person or the group for whom the communication is

intended or the person who receive the message.

• Receiver decodes the message- the act of interpreting

messages.

• Receivers decode messages based on past experiences,

perceptions, thoughts and feelings.

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 Receiver/decoder…
• The 1st step in planning any communication is to
consider the intended audience.

• It is important to understand the audience from the

following perspective.

• Analysis …..segmentation ….audience profile

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 5. Feedback

• A communication is said to have feedback when the

receiver of the message gives his/her responses to the
sender of the message.

• The sender must know how well the messages have been
received by the receiver, understood, interpreted, and act
up on it.

• It completes the process of communication.

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 Feedback…
• Negative feedback: when the message has not been
understood.

• This kind of feedback, conveys lack of understanding.

• Positive feedback: when the receiver has understood the

source‟s message.

• It does not necessarily mean that he or she agrees with the

source, just that the message was interpreted accurately.

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 Feedback…

Effective communicator is always;

• Sensitive to feedback and

• Constantly modifies his or her messages as a result of the

feedback received.

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 6. Communication Context
• Communication context is the environment where
communication takes place.

• They are sources of noise which interfere with

communication process.
I. physical context
II. cultural context
III. social-psychological context
IV. temporal (time) context

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 7. Barriers/Noise

• Barriers are any obstacles or difficulties that come in the

way of communication.
• It can occur at any stage of communication process.
• The source‟s information may be insufficient or unclear.
• Or the message can be ineffectively or inaccurately
encoded.
• The wrong channel of communication may be used.

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 Barriers/Noise…
• Finally, the receiver may not equipped to handle the decoded
message in such a way as to produce the response (feedback)
expected by the source.

-Physical -Environmental

-Intellectual -Cultural

-Emotional -Status of the source

-Inconsistencies between verbal & non- verbal communication

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The Seven C‟s of Effective
Communication

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