Changing Channels

Abstract

Many health promotion campaigns are designed to communicate complex, potentially ambiguous messages. The strategic communication stages of formative research, strategy, tactics, and evaluation provide campaign guidance for communicating messages, but less direction is available for the specific tactics of channel selection and message delivery. The research question explored here is what channel characteristics should campaign designers consider and assess when selecting the most effective channels for disseminating their messages. A review of extant literature of channel selection theory informed the application of media richness theory and the concept of medium control. Synthesizing this theory and concept provides a typology of channels from which to select channels for communicators as they negotiate the media landscape. Often with limited resources and budgets, health communicators must make critical choices about what channels to use in disseminating their messages. While new and social media offer exciting opportunities, communicators must consider the media’s ability to transmit potentially ambiguous messages.