Synthesizing Knowledge and Gaps in Research to Inform Communication Strategies in Building a Culture of Health
On January 15, 2020, the COMM HSP team convened an invitation-only research workshop called “Synthesizing Knowledge and Gaps in Research to Inform Communication Strategies in Building a Culture of Health”, held at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
The meeting objectives were:
- To share collective knowledge of how various forms of media and narrative research (e.g., political ads, health insurance ads, local news, TV shows) communicate about Culture of Health-related issues;
- To share knowledge and wisdom about efforts to measure and/or engage with public, community, and policymakers’ attitudes, beliefs, and opinions related to health and health equity;
- To identify collective lessons learned about effective strategic messaging to promote mindsets and values that support a Culture of Health; and
- To outline an agenda for future research priorities for communication research relevant to building a Culture of Health.
Twenty-nine people attended the meeting, including researchers from academic and non-academic institutions, research staff, and RWJF program officers. Attendees presented work across four workshop topics related to the content of media and media organizations; strategic message design to shape a Culture of Health; understanding and engaging the public, community, and policymakers related to Culture of Health communication; and systems-level interventions to promote a Culture of Health. Speakers shared lessons learned and the collective group engaged in discussions to establish important gaps in existing research and what future research priorities should be.
The proceedings of the workshop — including the collective identification of priority topics for research attention — is available in this workshop summary report.