Blackwell Reference Online

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Development communication engages strategic social change in a variety of areas, yet a great proportion of resources in this field are allocated toward the field of →  Health Communication ( Hemer & Tufte 2005 ; →  Development Communication ). There is no universal →  strategic communication response to complex health-related challenges, but rather a framework of general principles, ranging from behavior change through mediated communication to advocacy communication directed toward policy and structural change, through the processes of →  participatory communication ( Nutbeam & Harris 2001 . The practices engaged follow the standards invoked in → development communication campaigns ( McKee et al 2000 ; →  Media Advocacy in Health Communication ). In issues of health, a central challenge has been the replication of health campaigns across different communities and issues ( Piotrow et al. 1997 ). The particular contexts of the health concern and the community at risk differ greatly. For example, the social marketing of individual behaviors (condom use) in family planning strategies in the 1970s and 1980s was very rapidly transferred into a dominant strategy in HIV/AIDS in subsequent decades. This happened in part due to HIV/AIDS being conceived as primarily a problem arising from certain kinds of sexual behavior. In more recent years there has been a growing recognition ... log in or subscribe to read full text