In the United States, stigma surrounding mental illness is ever present. With a large misrepresentation from the media, those suffering with mental illnesses, like eating disorders, often face different types of social rejection. Due to the stigma surrounding mental illness, and eating disorders, the disclosure of such an illness to another person can result in a negative impression of the sender. There is little research looking at how mental illness disclosures can affect the formation of a romantic relationship, specifically from the perspective of the receiver of a disclosure. Looking specifically at the format of mobile dating apps, this study looks at how a receiver’s initial attraction to a person changes, based on the presence of an eating disorder disclosure. Results found a correlation between stigma and attraction, however, disclosure type had no effect on attraction, or stigma.

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Health is one of the most important issues in the lives of human beings and has a direct effect on the well-being of a country’s citizens and its economy. Researchers emphasise the role of communication in maintaining health and well-being, and in preventingdisease by changing behaviour. In a multilingual society such as South Africa, health communication documents are often translated for distribution to different language groups. However, the translation of health-related communication documents, specifically for use by low-literate target audiences, poses many challenges, especially in cases where there is a considerable distance between the source text and the target cultures. Translators who work in the field of health communication require specific strategies that will enable them to effectively transfer health-related information that is steeped in cultural meaning while taking into consideration aspects such as stigma and taboo. This study explores the challenges faced during the translation from English into isiZulu of a photonovel called An ounce of prevention, a health document about cervical cancer originally developed for a Latin American audience. This text relies heavily on cultural elements to convey messages. Through an overview of Christiane Nord’s model of Functionality +Loyalty (2005), as well as Larkey and Hecht’s (2010) model of Effects of Narratives as Culture-Centric Health Promotion, a set of analytic heuristics was distilled and applied as a tool to systematically identify cultural elements in the photonovel to ensure that a translation into isiZulu would be culturally acceptable to a Zulu target audience. The purpose of analytic heuristics is to assist translators’ understanding of the communicative situation in which the source text was produced. Once they have been equipped with necessary knowledge of the communication situation and have a sound understanding of the photonovel as a text, translators should be able to systematically identify culture-specific elements in the source text. Thereafter they can establish the cultural distance between the source text culture and the target text communication situation to ensure that all narrative characteristics from both the personal and socio-cultural levels of the narrative inform the concepts of transportation, identification and social profiling. Translators are thus equipped to make informed decisions regarding the translation of specific challenges identified in the source text that would make the target text culturally unacceptable to the target culture. Once the heuristics have been applied to excerpts from the photonovel that pose intercultural challenges, it is concluded that cultural elements and linguistic norms have been successfully identified in the source text and have been appropriately re-contextualised in the target text to ensure that the original message is conveyed. It is assumed that the analytic heuristics will also be useful in ensuring the effective translation of other culture-centric texts without changing the original message. / Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / African Languages / MA / Unrestricted

Background: To be able to live independently, older persons can use technology-based health communication (HC) for support, guidance, and contact with health care professionals within their home environment. Informal caregivers who assist in different situations can also find support in their caring role using technology. The study of mobile technologies is an important research area in gerontechnology. Nevertheless, there is a gap of research in technology-based HC utilized by older persons, including preferences related to cognitive impairment (CI) in a home environment. Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to define the concept and describe experiences of HC within the home environment from a gerontechnological perspective. The aim of Study I was to identify and construct the meaning of HC from the perspective of older persons in need of care in the home environment and their informal caregivers. The aim of Study II was to describe how older persons with CI experienced technology-based HC through the use of a mobile application in order to facilitate a sense of coherence. Method: This thesis has a naturalistic approach. In Study I, the evolutionary model of concept analysis was used, based on a systematic literature review including 29 studies. In Study II, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 older persons with CI. The transcripts were analyzed with a deductive thematic analysis. Findings: The defining attributes of the concept HC identified in Study I were: Resources of the recipient, Influence on decisions, and Advantages of tailored information. These attributes led to the following descriptive definition of HC: Tailored information, based on needs and resources of the recipient influence care decisions. The findings of Study II resulted in an overall theme: A technology that supports but creates challenges. Further, the analysis yielded the following three themes, with associated subthemes: Making sense of mobile technologies, Mastering mobile technologies, and Added value to use mobile technologies. Conclusion: Technology-based HC utilized by older persons and their informal caregivers within the home environment emphasizes suiting needs, capacity and preferences to be considered useful. Influences of the context, the home environment also needs to be taken into account when developing technology-based HC and mobile technologies for this purpose.

Thesis (M. A. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Globally, over the years, health promotion organisations have developed communication campaigns geared towards addressing most major public health issues with the intention of preventing risky sexual behaviour. Teenage pregnancy is a major health, social, systemic and economic challenge, not only for the basic education sector but also, crucially for national development in general. The use of modern contraceptives, specifically implant contraceptives, has the potential to alleviate unintended teenage pregnancies. Modern contraceptives such as implant contraceptives have proven to be highly effective from 24 hours after insertion up to three years. Theoretically, the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour have been applied to guide the study. A quantitative, descriptive survey was used in this study, with data collected using questionnaires. Purposive sampling of six secondary schools under the Mankweng Circuit in the Limpopo province where 306 participants were randomly selected was employed. Data were analysed using the SPSS version 26. The study revealed that that 34% of the participants were willing to use the implant contraceptive method based on the benefits found to be associated with the method. However, 66% were not willing to use the method regardless of the benefits found in using the implant contraceptives. In addition, it was found that only 3.9% of the participants were using implant contraceptives as a tool to prevent unintended pregnancies. This study makes a contribution to existing literature on implant contraceptives uptake among young women in South Africa. It would be informative to organisations and the National Department of Health who propose the use of implant contraceptives to stem increasing teenage pregnancies.

The world is experiencing a rapid rise in chronic health problems, which places an enormous burden on health care services. Modifiable health behaviors such as physical inactivity are largely responsible for this high prevalence and incidence of chronic diseases. Message tailoring is a well-established approach for constructing health communication and has been shown to increase the persuasiveness of messages in the promotion of healthy behaviors. Message framing is an effective strategy that has been well-studied in psychology over the past 20-plus years across a breadth of health-related behaviors but has received little attention in the nursing research literature. Based on prospect theory, temporal construal theory, and motivational orientation theories, the present study examined how two individual differences factors - consideration of future consequences (CFC) and motivational orientation - combine to moderate temporal proximity and valence framing effects on intentions to increase physical activity. A mail survey was conducted using Dillman's Tailored Design Method. Two hundred and eighteen adults with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to receive one of four versions of a health message aimed to increase regular physical activity. Messages were framed using a 2 (immediate- vs. distal-framed) x 2 (gain- vs. loss-framed) design. After reading the message, participants rated their intention to increase physical activity. They also completed a measure of CFC and two measures of motivational orientation. Participants who read a message with a temporal proximity or valence frame congruent with their CFC or motivational orientation, respectively, did not show greater intentions to increase physical activity when compared to those who read a health message that was incongruent with these individual differences. Plausible explanations for these negative results are considered. Several interesting findings emerged from supplemental analyses. For instance, participants who perceived the health message as more believable tended to have greater intentions to increase physical activity. Suggestions for future research applying message congruence to promote complex health behaviors in at-risk populations are given. Implications of message framing and other message tailoring strategies for nursing research, education, and practice are discussed.

More celebrities have been opening up about the mental illness (MI) journey, despite its stigmatized status in society. This shift has become popular with some rap artists, including Kanye West, Logic, and NF. However, little research exists on mental health rhetoric in the rap industry. In this project, I contributed to filling this gap by looking at the lyrics of American rapper, NF. Because his music is rising popularity and heavily focused on MI experience, NF was a worthy rhetor to study. I used Fantasy Theme Analysis to discover the fantasy themes present in NF’s album The Search. These fantasy themes present bind together to create a rhetorical vision of how NF experiences an internal war because of his MI. NF’s experiences may be shared by his listeners that also deal with the complexities of MI and its associated stigma. By talking about his MI experiences openly and honestly, NF and other celebrities can use their public platform to increase feelings of belongingness and reduce feelings of self-stigma.

Objective: The aim of this empirical and theoretical review was to investigate how romantic partners influence their significant others’ weight- and diet-related behaviors and to identify effective and ineffective tactics used in romantic relationships to promote behavior changes. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted to locate relevant studies, and a total of 11 peer-reviewed articles were included in this review based on the inclusion criteria. Results: Empirical findings indicated positive communication messages are effective in promoting partners’ health behaviors whereas negative tactics are not as effective. The negative messages may lead to harmful consequences including the development of disordered eating behaviors, body image dissatisfaction, and self-doubt. Social control, social support, confirmation, and social comparison theory emerged in this area of research. Conclusions: This review identifies romantic partners’ influence on their significant others’ weight- and diet-related behaviors and pinpoints the existing research gap in this area of study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare how two county councils in Sweden communicated on Facebook during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. During the covid-19 pandemic the public needed fast and credible information to manage the crisis. In Sweden, the county councils have the responsibility for healthcare, and therefore an important local authority during a pandemic. This study hasintended to investigate through a quantitative method wether there are any differences in the communication between two regions in different parts of Sweden during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Findings show that the two biggest topics are vaccine/vaccination and the spread of infection in both regions. Another discovery is that neither county councils posts correlates to the spread of disease in the regions. Both Region Norrbotten and Region Skåne only published a few posts on hygiene and distance even though this should be one of the main messages according to Folkhälsomyndigheten. An important conclusion is that the county councils could have adapted their communication more to the existing regional conditions.

Although many studies have been published detailing the effects of narratives on persuasion, no literature has been published on the impact of narratives on psychological reactance in the context of anti-pornography campaigns. This study expands on prior narrative research by measuring adults' aged 21-76 (N=187) level of psychological reactance to statistical, research-based, and narrative videos. The study also explored Intrinsic Religious Motivation and perceived threat and susceptibility as factors. No significant relationship between narratives and reduced psychological reactance was found, however, findings indicated that viewing anti-pornography narratives caused individuals to view the threat of pornography as being more severe while simultaneously considering themselves less susceptible to the threat. This suggests the presence of optimistic bias. The study's findings also suggested that having strong beliefs is connected to a having greater perceived threat and susceptibility to pornography addiction.