Section: Module 6: Lesson 3: Tailoring Public Health Messages for the Audience | Public Health Communications | NextGenU.org

  • Student Learning Outcomes:
    Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
    • Identify the best practices to adapt messages to audiences on communication campaigns.
    • Analyze the different characteristics that should be considered when communicating audience-appropriate public content (i.e. literacy, technical expertise, cultural diversity, bias, jargon, etc.).
    • Evaluate how existing public health communications campaigns adapted their messages for different audiences.
    • Construct written/oral public health content that is audience-specific and appropriate based on both audience evaluation and strategy-based communication principles.
    Approximate time required to complete the readings (at 144 words/minute) and assignments for this lesson: 4 hours and 9 minutes.

    • Required Learning Resources and Activities
    • Read the entire page. (7 minutes)

      Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism - 2011

    • Read the entire page. (24 minutes)

      University of Minnesota - 2012

    • Read the entire page. (26 minutes)

      University of Minnesota - 2012

    • Read the entire page. (16 minutes)

      Seneca College - 2020

    • Read pages 24-29. (10 minutes)

      WHO - 2017

    • In this activity, you will evaluate an existing public health communication campaign and how it adapted its message to its audiences through a critical audio podcast.

      Step 1. Review

      Review all the previous readings for Module 6. After reviewing, access these featured public health communication campaigns in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Select one campaign of interest. This will help you solve the given scenario below.

      Scenario

      You are the Lead health communications officer of your region. For this month, you are invited to deliver a podcast episode in your region's health communication podcast channel evaluating one featured public health communication campaign of CDC for a possible re-modeling or adoption of the campaign into your locality.

      Step 2. Analyze

      Study the selected public health communication campaign and analyze the way it adapted its message to different audiences. Keep in mind the way the health campaign has customized/tailored its message to the different audiences and how it identified key supporting points, each with supporting facts, statistics, and examples, to accomplish the campaign's goal.

      Step 3. Respond

      Evaluate how the selected  public health communications campaign adapted its messages for different audiences by recording an audio podcast that tackles the following focal points:

      • Introduction of the campaign
      • Relevance of the campaign's content to specific audiences
      • Strong features of the campaign that encapsulates the interest and attention of specific audiences
      • Strategies used in communicating risks effectively to achieve desired outcomes
      • A concise summary that ends with suggestions or future recommendations

      Step 4: Share

      To share your work, click on the "Reply" button under this post and paste your work in the "Message" box. Make sure to reference others' intellectual property when necessary. All references should follow 7th Edition APA formatting. For further instructions, see the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library resource: APA citation resource (N.B. references are excluded from word counts).

      Step 5: Interact

      To complete the activity, you will need to reply to at least two posts made by your peers in a respectful and professional manner. Be sure that your post engages your peers' ideas by including a reflection on their comments, sharing ideas of other potential difficulties and parties involved, or asking thought-provoking questions. If a peer comments on your posting, please reply. To post a reply, click "Reply" on a particular discussion, write your feedback and then click on "Post to the Forum."

      OPTIONAL Step 6: Interact (10 minutes)

      If you would like to, you can reply to your peers' posts in a respectful and professional manner. Ensure that your post engages your peers' ideas by including a reflection on their comments, sharing ideas of other potential difficulties and parties involved, or asking thought-provoking questions. If a peer comments on your posting, please reply. To post a reply, click “Reply” on a particular discussion, write your feedback and then click on “Post to forum.”


    • To access the quiz, click on the name of the quiz provided above. On the following screen, click the "Preview quiz now" button to respond to the questions.