Role and Scope of Communication as Facilitator in Health Information, Education and Behavioral Change in Indian Context

Abstract

Media encapsulates gigantic power. This began with its birth and increased manifold with its development, growth, divergence and convergence. It has been used as a powerful weapon to highlight certain issues at the same time sidelining others swiftly. Similarly, health has always been an issue of pivotal concern for everyone. It tops the list of policy papers and also academic and administrative minds. Healthy life is largely dependent on healthy lifestyle about which many are either unaware or ignorant. In this age of non-stop work, unregulated working hours, pressure of deadlines, individuals unknowingly get entrapped in stress of umpteen kinds. Therefore, the role of media becomes all the more important as a social institution. The role of an academician is to point out the loopholes of the system rather than complying with it. The need of the hour is to become critical rather than administrative, to ask questions rather than selecting among few options Keywords: Media, Health, Communication, Behavioral Journalism, Agenda-Setting, Cultivation Theory

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