Journal of Creative Communications

Both health communication scholars and practitioners concede the seriousness of stigma in several disease contexts. But the literature on how to deal with it and possibly reduce or remove it is thin. The case of leprosy in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, however, illustrates a simple, innovative and community-grown strategy to combat stigma. Supported by the government and designed by the Danish International Development Agency’s Leprosy Unit (DANLEP), the strategy relied upon a small band of trained and motivated leprosy workers. Their main task, among other things, was mobilizing the community. The community was at first cautious, but it began to perceive the benefits in leprosy worker’s effort and argument, and began approaching the afflicted. The community’s concern transformed the patients’ worldview. They grew to be less ashamed of their health condition and themselves. The growing participation of the community in the state transformed leprosy into an ordinary treatable disease. This transformation did not come about at one go, but in slow, sometimes tentative, but measured steps.

This article describes the process of demystifying leprosy. It shows how the three important stakeholders (3Ps)—persons with leprosy, persons with concern and providers of health services—forged a strategic alliance that not only helped eradicate leprosy but also deal with the more intractable issue of social stigma attached to the disease. If leprosy is a common ailment today, it is to a large extent due to community participation. The article emphasizes that if health problems are identified and approached through the community, not only are fears and misconceptions of community removed, but the community reinvents itself to bring about desirable changes.

With co-existence of under-nutrition and obesity among its people, malnutrition afflicts India like a double-edged sword. The search for solutions has often pointed at ‘Nutrition Communication’ as a tool in alleviating malnutrition. This study, through three case studies in India, attempts to critically examine how various organizations engaged in nutrition communication perceive, develop and implement communicative processes. These case studies typically combined data collection methods like information gathering and interviews. We realize nutrition communication programmes are top-down, expert-driven and are often denied planning, evaluation or budgets. We argue that factors such as the organization’s knowledge of the nutrition problem(s), perceptions of the key communicators, their motivation levels and personal biases also affect the design and implementation of nutrition communication programmes.

This article analyses the H1N1 flu crisis coverage, in the Ahmedabad edition of The Times of India, the highest circulated English daily in India as well as in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The study aimed to look at the journalism practices followed in the coverage of the crisis and to determine how the newspaper framed the H1N1 issue. Systematic random sampling was used to select 127 from all 381 news stories that appeared in the Times between August and November 2009. The article identified six frames in the coverage: fear and panic, severity, safety, human interest, attribution of responsibility and scientific information It concludes that the article set the agenda for H1N1 crisis as a threat to human life and framed it as a war between humans, where the virus has an edge over humans.

Despite a lack of scholarly consensus on the effectiveness of health communication campaigns, there is general agreement that communication interventions are necessary to bring about and maintain large-scale behaviour and social change. Designing, implementing and evaluating health communication campaigns is a complex task with myriad challenges, multiplied manifold in developing country settings. The purpose of this article is to examine key elements of health communication campaigns in developing countries. A review of published literature revealed 43 articles and five books with chapters discussing developing country campaigns. The project locations indicated a wide geographical dispersion. The campaigns reviewed ranged from multinational initiatives to programmes confined to specific cities or villages. The health issues tackled in the manuscripts were reflective of the health goals articulated in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A relatively small proportion of the reviewed literature discussed the use of theory as a framework or foundation for the intervention(s); individual-level behaviour change theories were the most commonly used. The selected campaigns utilized a range of mass media, community mobilization, and interpersonal communication strategies, and often employed multiple strategies and communication channels. A set of recommendations is presented to further our understanding of communication campaigns in developing country settings.

The lack of a medical cure for AIDS puts the spotlight on preventive efforts. Therefore, an enormous responsibility is placed on communication since it plays an important role in disseminating information that may prevent risky behaviour as well as help in reducing stigma of AIDS patients. In this article, we wish to highlight what we consider to be important elements in a successful or effective campaign. The article will begin with an overview of important models/theories that are related to HIV/AIDS prevention noting their theoretical contributions as well as some of their weaknesses in addressing pertinent factors. This will be followed by our description of an effective HIV/AIDS prevention campaign. This article also underlines the importance of local stakeholders. The challenge for communication and programme managers/practitioners is to identify and seek collaboration of important local stakeholders.