Listening, Local Engagement, and Lateral Connections as the Future of Health Communication

Amid a rapidly evolving health communication landscape, innovative efforts to engage communities and cultivate trusted, local sources of health information have become crucial. In this essay, we describe lessons learned from such efforts, including the importance of centering community voices, engaging a diverse range of interest holders, and strengthening social networks that support information sharing and collective action. We argue that the role of health communication professionals must expand beyond a narrow focus on recommending individual and group behavior change to a more multidisciplinary approach that actively monitors and informs popular news and entertainment media while building durable bridges across people, organizations, and sectors. This annual Society for Health Communication special issue reflects that shift in the field, highlighting communication's growing emphasis on partner- and community-engaged approaches, relationship building, and the development of learning networks among diverse groups of people and community organizations.