PUBLIC
COMMUNICATION
CAMPAIGNS
Dr. Rasha Salama
PhD. Community Medicine and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine
Suez Canal University-Egypt
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
CAMPAIGNS
What are Public Communication
Campaigns ?
Public Communication Campaigns
Public communications campaigns impart ideas
for a strategic purpose.
They are an attempt to shape behavior toward
desirable social outcomes.
Definition
Public communication campaigns are
campaigns that use the media, messaging, and
an organized set of communication activities to
generate specific outcomes in a large number
of individuals and in a specified period of time.
Concept
Campaigns maximize their chances of success through the
coordination of media efforts with a mix of other interpersonal
and community-based communication channels.
May involve a conventional mix of brochures, posters,
advertisements, and commercials or a different array of
communication methods for the purpose of achieving
certain objectives.
Communications campaigns use a variety of techniques
and strategies in hopes of improving individual lives and
making the world a better place.
What are the
different types of
?campaigns
There are two main types of
campaigns:
Individual behavior change campaigns: that try to
change in individuals the behaviors that lead to social
problems or promote behaviors that lead to improved
individual or social well-being;
Public will campaigns: that attempt to mobilize public
action for policy change. A public will campaign attempts
to legitimize or raise the importance of a social problem
in the public eye as the motivation for policy action or
change
Knowledge versus Behavior
Knowledge Alone Does Not Alter Behavior
With
some limited exceptions, people already know
what they should be doing
Simply telling them what to do rarely creates change
Behavior is shaped by factors such as:
available range of choices
social reinforcement and approval (norms)
rules (laws and policies)
ease/difficulty (benefits and barriers)
cost (economic and otherwise)
Communication Campaigns
Theories
What are the theories that
public health
communication
campaigns are based on?
Communication campaigns theories
Theory of Reasoned Action
Social Cognitive Theory
self-efficacy the belief that one has the skills and abilities
necessary to perform the behavior under various circumstances
and motivation to perform the behavior, are necessary for behavior
change.
Health Belief Model
a given behavior is primarily determined by the intention to perform
that behavior.
Based on: 1) a feeling of being personally threatened by a disease,
and 2) a belief that the benefits of adopting the protective health
behavior will outweigh the perceived costs of it.
Stages of Change Model
This model views behavior change as a sequence of actions or
events.
Theory of Reasoned Action
Social Cognitive Theory
Health Belief Model
Trans-theoretical Stages of Change
Model
Evaluation of
Campaigns
What is it?
What are the types?
Evaluation
It is simply:
Assessing the impact and value of
communication activities
Front-End Versus Back-End Evaluation
Evaluation can be categorized into four basic types. The
next table presents each, along with their definitions and
the sorts of evaluation questions that each type may
address (National Cancer Institute, 1992).
The first typeformative evaluationrepresents frontend evaluation; the last three typesprocess, outcome,
and impact evaluationrepresent back-end evaluation.
:Pathway of Communication Campaigns
What are the
characteristics of
effective campaigns
Campaign Logic Model Template
Public communication campaigns
obstacles and stumbling block:
Campaigns have horizontal and vertical
complexity;
Their interventions are unpredictable;
Context and other factors confound outcomes;
Control or comparison groups are difficult to
create;
There is a lack of knowledge and precision about
outcomes;
Evaluators lack the necessary tools.
Ambiguity between goals and actions
Despite these distinctions, a campaigns tactics dont always line up
with stated goals. There may be several reasons for the
ambiguities:
Timing. Pushing for specific policy change may be premature for an
audience that does not see the problem as a significant or public
one. For domestic or sexual violence in particular, advocates may
have decided that the public needed to be convinced first that the
problem extends beyond a basic victim/perpetrator
conceptualization. Only then could advocates rally the public to
apply sufficient pressure for institutional- or social policy-change.
Mixed goals. A campaign may have both individual change- and
public policy-oriented goals. Given the relative scarcity of full-time
public will or policy campaigns, any public policy component may be
enough to land a campaign on the policy side of the continuum
Ambiguity between goals and actions
:(cont.)
Working behind the scenes. A campaign may indeed
have a policy change emphasis it just may not be
public. That is, the public face of the campaign may
stress individual behavior change while advocates work
behind the scenes to change policy.
Universal approach. Lastly, researchers may tend to
characterize a campaign as public will simply because
it takes a universal approach to a problem. If the
campaign never makes the leap to institutional or policy
change, it probably shouldnt be classified as such.
References
Coffman, J. (2002, May). Public communication campaign evaluation: An
environmental scan of challenges, criticisms, practice, and opportunities.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.
Public Communication Campaigns, Rice, Ronald E. & Atkin, Charles K. (eds.),
Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2001, pg. 5.
Coffman, J. (2003). Lessons in evaluating communications campaigns: Five
case studies. Harvard Family Research Project. Retrieved 28 August 2008 from:
http://www.mediaevaluationproject.org/HFRP2.pdf
National Cancer Institute (1992). Making health communication programs work:
A planners guide [Electronic version]. Washington, DC: Author.
Thank You
