"This review of available scholarship in international health communication reveals a curious disconnect between an abundance of material available in selected nations and regions (e.g., Australia, southern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the United States), on the one hand, and relatively little atten
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tion to comparative research on the other hand. Cross-national research on major conditions and diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, is similarly rare [...] Several scholarly tools are recommended, among them a focus on "preparedness" as an umbrella concept, along with systeatic attempts to compare the way norms, media, and journalism function in different community and national contexts. Special endeavors to compare cultural differences are also recommended, exploring, for example, the ways different cultures handle a universal resource (water) or view critical thresholds in the lifecycle (such as marriages and first pregnancies), generating expectations for creating equivalent research "communities" in order to compare different theories and approaches to health communication." (Conclusion)
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"The Handbook of Global Health Communication offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the role of communication processes in global public health, development and social change. It brings together 32 contributions from well-respected scholars and practitioners in the field, addressing a wid
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e range of communication approaches in current global health programs; offers an integrated view that links communication to the strengthening of health services, the involvement of affected communities in shaping health policies and improving care, and the empowerment of citizens in making decisions about health; ddopts a broad understanding of communication that goes beyond conventional divisions between informational and participatory approaches." (Publisher description)
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"The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of comparative communication research. It fills an obvious gap in the literature and offers an extensive and interdisciplinary discussion of the general approach of comparative research, its prospect an
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d problems as well as its applications in crucial sub-fields of communications. The first part of the volume charts the state of the art in the field; the second section introduces relevant areas of communication studies where the comparative approach has been successfully applied in recent years; the third part offers an analytical review of conceptual and methodological issues; and the last section proposes a roadmap for future research." (Publisher description)
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"To reshape the field of development communication, Redeveloping Communication for Social Change proposes situating theory and practice within contexts of power, recognizing both the ability of dominant groups to control and the potential for marginal communities to resist. Contributors from communi
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cation and anthropology explore the global and institutional structures within which agencies construct social problems and interventions, the discourse guiding the normative climate for conceiving and implementing projects, and the practice of strategic interventions for social change. Examining early and emerging models of development, power dynamics, ethnographic approaches, gender issues, and information technologies, they speculate how a framework accounting for power might contribute toward new directions and applications in the field. Instead of mourning the demise of development communication, this volume should provoke critical debate that will help us change our approaches to meet new challenges." (Publisher description)
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