From Awareness to Commitment in Public Health Campaigns

Attempts to raise awareness on a multitude of health issues may actually be counter-productive and even dangerous to solving contemporary health problems. From Awareness to Commitment in Public Health Campaigns: The Awareness Myth discusses several myths of the benefits of raising awareness. Myleea Hill and Marceline Thompson-Hayes argue that using awareness as an end-point in public health campaigns is misguided and does more harm than good. They offer a model of the current awareness culture that simply leads to an ever-increasing cycle of awareness without behavioral change or sustained participation and support for causes. Then, they demonstrates how three factors (recognition involvement, knowledge-seeking and education, and participation) intersect to create commitment to solving and alleviating health problems through various methods of communication (social media, mass communication, and interpersonal communication).

Myleea Dawn Hill is professor of strategic communication in the Department of Communication at Arkansas State University.
Marceline Thompson Hayes is professor of communication studies and chair of the Department of Communication at Arkansas State University.

Contents
Foreword
By Susan Jacobson and Lynne M. Webb
Acknowledgments
Unit I
Chapter 1-Overview and Introduction: Awareness is Everywhere
Chapter 2-The Awareness Culture: The Rise of Ribbons and the Fall of Campaign
Chapter 3-Awareness as Events, Observations, and Amusement: An Analysis of Selected Health-Related Websites
Unit II
Chapter 4-The Awareness is Education Myth
Chapter 5-The Awareness is Enough Myth
Chapter 6-The Awareness is Acceptance Myth
Chapter 7-The Awareness is Altruistic Myth
Chapter 8-The Awareness Equals Health Myth
Unit III
Chapter 9-The Awareness Myth Model
Chapter 10-The Development of the Commitment-Communication Model
Bibliography
About the Authors