Health Communication Research - Tracking Research Trends in the Journal of Communication and Media Research

Abstract Since coming into existence over four decades ago, the field of health communication research has experienced significant growth and developments in terms of the themes, theories and research methodologies that drive the studies. This is brought about by the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Although studies have been undertaken to investigate the research trends using mainly foreign based journals, none has been conducted to track, specifically, the trends of health communication research by scholars in Nigeria and Africa; hence, this study using the Journal of Communication and Media Research. All the articles in the 11 editions of the journal were scrutinized and only 21 (12.6%) out of the 168 articles were health-related. These were content analysed. Results show that the theme of “awareness creation and the promotion of disease control, management and prevention” dominated the health studies while Survey and Descriptive statistics are the most used research method and data analysis method respectively. It is; therefore, recommended that Nigerian and African health communication scholars make their studies more rigorous and also explore other current health themes such as health ethics and policies and new media use for health communication in order to contribute effectively to international conversations in the field. Key Words: Health Communication, Research Methodology, Research Trends, Content Analysis, Journal of Communication and Media Research. JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, April 2015, 183 – 198 ©Delmas Communications Ltd. About the authors *Chinyere Azuka Mbaka is of the General Studies Unit, Wesley University of Science and Technology, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria. **Dr. Ebenezer Soola, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Full Article Words: 6,217; Pages: 17