Swanepoel, P. & Hoeken, H. (eds.) 2008. Adapting health
communication to cultural needs. Optimizing documents in
South-African health communication on HIV and AIDS. Amsterdam /
Philadelphia: John Benjamins., pp.178. ISBN: 978 90 272 3247 2
The question of what constitutes effective health communication has
been addressed mainly by scholars working in American and European
cultural contexts. Many people who could benefit most from effective
health communication, however, come from different cultures. A prime
example is the threat posed by HIV/AIDS to the people of South
Africa. Although it is generally acknowledged that health
communication needs to be tailored to the target audience's
characteristics with cultural background being one of the most
salient ones, little research has been done on how to achieve this.
In this book, we bring together leading scholars in the field of
health communication as well as communication scholars from South
Africa. As such, it can serve as an example of the promises and the
limitations of general health communication theories to local praxis
as well as provide guidelines for the development of better health
communication in South Africa. The book contains the following
contributions by scholars from South Africa, the Netherlands and the US:
1. Optimizing health communication in South Africa: An
introduction Hans Hoeken and Piet Swanepoel
2 Planned development of culturally sensitive health
promotion programs:
An Intervention Mapping approach
Madelief G. B. C. Bertens, Herman Schaalma, Kay Bartholomew,
and Bart van den Borne
3. Creating a climate of safer sex: Making efficacious action plausible
Gary R. Pettey and Richard M. Perloff
4. The integrative model of behavioral prediction and message-based HIV
prevention
Marco Yzer
5. Health education in action in Southern Africa: Soul
City
Sue Goldstein, Harriet Perlman, and Caroline Jane Smith
6. Promoting VCT among South African students: Are we missing
the
message?
Piet Swanepoel, Marije Burger, Anne Loohuis, and Carel Jansen
7. Cultural differences in the perceptions of fear and efficacy
in South Africa
Carel Jansen, Hans Hoeken, Dineke Ehlers and Frans van der Slik
8. The effect of language style in message-based HIV
prevention
Elvis Saal
9. Visual health communication: Why and how do literate and low
literate South Africans differ in their understanding of visual
health messages?
Alfons Maes, Karen Foesenek, and Hanneke Hoogwegt
_____________________________________________
Prof Pieter J Fourie
Dept of Communication Science/Kommunikasiewetenskap
University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika
Pretoria
Tel: 012-429-6025/ 082-3498111
Fax: 012-429-3346
