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Design for extreme scalability: A wordless, globally scalable COVID-19 prevention animation for rapid public health communication

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: T o scale globally, public health communication interventions must capture the public' s attention, meet them where they consume information and convey reliable messages in ways that are accessible across languages, ages, cultural affiliations and education levels.Novel approaches are needed to ensure that such interventions are developed and deployed quickly, sidestepping the typical delays associated with sluggish public health campaigns.Delays in producing compelling, evidence-based health communication can leave a vacuum that is quickly filled with misinformation.In the case of COVID-19, we watched the social media stratosphere explode with deceptive, anecdotal health messages that played on paranoia, fear and stigmatization, further aggravating a global state of unease and uncertainty.Social media personalities suggested anecdotal preventive strategies, ranging from the ineffective to the life-threatening.For evidence-based recommendations to be heard above the anecdotal noise, they must be equal parts compelling and understandable to diverse global viewers.When health messages are packaged didactically, relying predominantly on the technical presentation of information, we run the risk of missing the audiences that need these messages the most.Framing health messages as informational arguments has proven to be less effective for changing behaviors than, for example, packaging recommendations within a relatable story [1,2].Even the use of spoken or written text creates barriers, necessitates translation and slows the speed at which evidence-based health messages can be spread across social media networks.By leaning on best practices from entertainment-education, communication theory [3,4], and even the commercial animation industry [5] health educators and health communication professionals can rapidly create compelling, evidence-based health messages that virtually "go viral", while preventing their target diseases from doing the same.

Source: Journal of Global Health

DOI: 10.7189/jogh.10.010343

Authors: Maya Adam, Till Bärnighausen, Shannon A McMahon