Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (School of Communication) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.P.H.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2000? / Bibliography: leaves 195-205.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-170).

The likelihood of achieving an effective environmental health communications program increases with a knowledge of the target audience's attitudes toward their environmental health concerns, source credibility, preferred channels of communication, and desire to participate in environmental issues. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was threefold: 1) to examine selected personal and social variables that influence attitudes towards environmental health communications; 2) to explore differences in those attitudes between groups that share a common environmental hazard within a defined geographic region; and, 3) to develop a communication needs assessment tool that other public health agencies might be able to use. A stratified random telephone sampling of 407 households was conducted in Idaho's Coeur d'Alene River Basin. Nonparametric statistical methods, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of ranks, were utilized for the data analysis. The results, showed significant differences in the environmental concerns between the residents of Couer d'Alene and residents of the Silver Valley. Respondents in Coeur d'Alene were more concerned with air pollution, while respondents in the Silver Valley were more concerned with the effects of mining. Secondly, the state government was less negatively received as a source of environmental information than were the local or federal governments. In addition, respondents earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year have the highest amount of trust in information coming from the federal government. Both TV news and local newspaper were the preferred channels of communication for the majority of respondents in the region. Qualitative data revealed that media sources from Spokane, Washington were a dominant influence in the region. Respondents with a college degree were less likely than respondents from other educational levels to prefer TV news as a source of environmental information. They were, however, more likely to participate in a public meeting than were respondents from other educational levels. Finally, research findings suggest that women, and respondents earning less than $10,000 per year, feel less control over their environmental health than do men and respondents from higher income levels. They are also less likely than either men or respondents earning more than $10,000 per year to feel that a citizen's efforts to protect the environment are usually effective. / Graduation date: 1996

Emerging infectious diseases are one of the growing risks the global community faces. From recent experiences of the bird flu and SARS outbreaks, we have learned how quickly and broadly a virus could spread, and how great the impact it could have on our lives. The outbreaks have highlighted the importance of risk communication. The media, as a major source of health information for the public, has been recognized as an important public health tool for communicating health risk during a pandemic. However, to what extent the media can help during an outbreak and what impact news coverage can have on the public is not clear. While many risk communication research related to infectious diseases focus on the public’s perception and responses to risk, related studies of news media content from a public health perspective are comparatively few. Existing studies generally focus on particular aspects of media coverage, such as sensationalism and the socio-cultural effects of the coverage. Findings from these studies are diverse. Also, most studies look at the English-language media, and studies on the Chinese-language media are sparse. This study examines how and what the news media reported about the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, using Hong Kong’s Chinese-language media coverage as a case. Based on content analysis and news frame analysis, and the concepts of perceived severity and efficacy in risk message process theories, an analytical scheme was constructed to examine to what extent the media provided “useful” information to the public, and how this information was presented. The analysis of newspaper content on swine flu focused on three aspects: Firstly, to examine the volume of coverage related to the pandemic and the relationship between the reporting trends and the disease’s development; secondly, to identify information about disease prevention measures presented in the news content; and thirdly, to describe how the media portrayed the new H1N1 vaccine, in an attempt to draw inferences about the public’s response to the vaccine. Results showed that the news reporting trend had no relationship with the infection case numbers. What triggered the peaks of coverage were event-oriented and government policy-related developments rather than case numbers. Content analysis showed that only a small proportion of the news stories presented health information, with particular prevention measures mentioned frequently but with limited explanation for how and why to do it. Frame analysis showed that the selected newspapers differed in framing the new vaccine. While the tabloid-styled papers tended to use more disfavor-vaccine frame, the up-market newspapers tended to use more favour-vaccine frame. Due to the limitation of the theoretical framework that this study is based on, it is not able to link the findings of the news content with the findings of the existing studies on public’s perception to the disease and related issues. However, the findings can provide an account of some characteristics of the news coverage of the Hong Kong Chinese-language media during a global public health crisis, which may serve as primary data for further study. / published_or_final_version / Journalism and Media Studies Centre / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-158). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The risk perception as presented by the media is important because it is usually through the media that the general population first receives information about an important event or crisis. The unique position of the media comes with a responsibility to provide a ‘communication bridge’ between the government and the general population. However the editorial choices determining the appropriateness of source, amount, and type of information conveyed to the public during a crisis is influenced by the contextual environment. The issue attention framework proposed by Downs was used to explore the possible links between the trajectory of a crisis and the media response may shed some light on the populations perception of risk during a crisis (the Hong Kong SARS epidemic in 2003) in which WiseNews was used to search the grey literature. The articles identified were classified into 4 categories: incidence, public health information, economy, and sensationalism by date of publication. These categories were then plotted on the Hong Kong hospital admissions and deaths epidemic curves. The study explored the potential link between key events during the Hong Kong SARS epidemic and the specific content of the medial publications. / published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

The present project evaluates and examines a communication campaign carried out at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) in 2003, which publicized the introduction of a HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) facility on campus. Drawing on theories 'of entertainment education (EE) and behaviour change, the campaign's effectiveness is analysed in relation to (1) audience reception; (2) take-up of the service promoted; and (3) visibility and penetration of the media employed. The thesis is that the message in campaigns of this nature benefits from avoiding claims of bringing about behaviour change by the mere fact of commurlication or information transfer. Instead, it is proposed that anti-H1V behaviour-change messages focus on urging audiences to act in presenting for VCT, because the ongoing counselling of VCT is a proper communicative forum for such changes. In conclusion, the present campaign's shortcomings are noted, and considered in the context of how to address these in relation to the opportunities offered by the merger ofUDW with the University of Natal from 2004. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal,Durban,2003.