Southern Center for Communication, Health & Poverty

Lessons Learned

In the course of conducting our work at the Southern Center, we have learned several practical lessons which warrant further dissemination to communication practitioners and researchers alike. Some of the lessons we have learned pertain to methods for studying communication to reduce health disparities. Other lessons offer specific prescriptions that can inform communicators who are developing messages for poor and culturally diverse groups.

We welcome you to view the streaming videos on this page, which represent our lessons learned.

Lessons Learned:

(1a) Introduction to Lessons Learned - Watch

(1) Choose metaphors that fit the thoughts and feeling of your target audience. - Watch

(2) Speak about genetic factors in health in combination with behavior and the environment. - Watch

(3) Understand that even people who express fatalistic beliefs about health can be motivated to adopt health behaviors. - Watch

(4) Bundle several health recommendations into a single communication product, but not too densely. - Watch

(5) Avoid negative reactance when formulating behavior change messages for adolescents. - Watch

(6)Take into account how your audience prioritize the multiple risks it faces. - Watch

(7) Conduct needs analyses to shape public health workforce training. - Watch

(8) Infuse communication instruction throughout the public health curriculum - Watch

(9) Credits - Watch