Public Health Communication
A. SUSANA RAMÍREZ, PhD, MPH
  • Home
  • ABOUT

Mapping the Health Information Networks: Communication Infrastructure and Storytelling Networks

6/30/2015

0 Comments

 
We have been awarded a Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship to expand our research on mapping the health information networks in a rural region. The project addresses information disparities in the rural and impoverished San Joaquin Valley of California, and is grounded in the idea that information disparities are important contributors to health disparities. The public information environment is an important determinant of health, and the mass media are especially critical sources for information dissemination in rural regions with geographically-dispersed populations that are harder to reach with other channels. However, the unequal, socially patterned distribution of health information is compounded in rural regions that face multiple barriers to health, contributing to rather than eliminating disparities. 

In a current project, we are working to map the prevalence of health-related news in Merced County, a culturally diverse rural California county characterized by extremely high levels of poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment. Results so far demonstrate a limited information environment, and further suggest there is minimal actionable health information in local newspapers. 

The Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship will allow us to extend preliminary work to map the complete current health information environment, including news, entertainment, social media, and community storytelling networks, with the ultimate goal of developing an intervention that will improve both the quantity of health information available and the quality (usability) of that information. This project borrows heavily from Communication Infrastructure Theory, developed by Dr. Sandra Ball-Rokeach at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Southern California.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    A. SUSANA RAMÍREZ
    ​Associate Profesor
    ​Public Health Communication

    sramirez37 at ucmerced dot edu

    ABOUT

    Archives

    December 2020
    July 2020
    October 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All
    Academia
    CBPR
    Conferences
    Fatalism
    Food Insecurity
    Health Disparities
    Hiring
    Information Overload
    In The Media
    Latino Health
    MHealth
    Obesity
    Personal
    Publications
    SJV
    Teaching

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.