Health communication – C4D Network

The Pulse is a free, online course for people interested in using media to inspire people to lead healthier lives. The course is aimed particularly at people who are new to health communication.

Through a series of activities and films, you will learn practical tools about making health communication interventions that work. This will give you the skills to design and produce content that captures large audiences’ attention and encourages them to act. The course includes examples of successful health communication campaigns to inspire you, as well as fact sheets on key health topics such as HIV and AIDS, family planning, nutrition, child health and sanitation.

The course features an exclusive film with academic experts – Dr Val Curtis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Dr Robert Hornik from the Annenberg School for Communication – talking about the elements and processes that go into making successful health communication interventions.

The Pulse course is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development.

This practice briefing sets out what BBC Media Action learned in delivering and supporting health communication in response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014–15. It has a particular focus on Sierra Leone as this was the hub of the organisation’s response.

The paper aims to contribute to a body of knowledge about how to best harness and deploy media and communication in public health emergencies. It also underscores the need for the global community to plan and invest in communication long before any crises take hold, to ensure that communication plays a central role in reducing the impact of future crisis events.

The paper sets out the specific communication challenge posed by Ebola and why it was so difficult to get to grips with this in the early months of the outbreak. It then documents when the health communication response became more useful and explores what that tells us about effective media and communication. Finally, it offers recommendations to ensure that media and communication are used to their full potential during other disease outbreaks or humanitarian crises.

‘The Pulse: A Guide to Health Communication’ – BBC Media Action online training

Using media and communication to respond to public health emergencies – lessons learned from Ebola (BBC Media Action Practice Briefing 2016)

Site Navigation

Social Networks