| Public health media campaigns involve more than simply transmitting information to its audience: they advocate deep social change that involves the embodiment of specific values, lifestyles, and behaviors. Social factors are involved in what issue becomes a public health media campaign and how the messages are created and communicated. Once presented, there are implications and expectations for how these messages are to be received. There are also consequences of public health media campaigns that may cause harm as well as good. This dissertation examines what is underlying the creation, implementation and dissemination of a public health campaign. The Back to Sleep campaign to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is used as a case study. A multi dimensional methodology of interviews, participant observation, and content analysis diagnoses the underlying factors that go into constructing a national public health media campaign, as well as the campaign's intended and unintended consequences. |
