Issues in Evaluating Mass Media-Based Health Communication Campaigns

Communication may play a dominant or supporting role in an intervention. Some roles may include communication strategies such as public relations whose objective is to get a heath issue on the public agenda; entertainment education in which an entertainment program models desired behavior; and media advocacy which entails using the mass media as an advocacy tool to achieve policy change. All of these strategies may include a range of communication activities at the individual small-group or mass media level. This chapter addresses only the last category and more specifically the issues surrounding the evaluation of the development implementation and effects of mass-media health communication campaigns. We discuss these evaluation issues under the commonly know headings of formative process and summative evaluation. (excerpt)