What This Course is About

In recent years, digital information technology has dramatically altered many aspects of human life, including personal and public communications about health. While we are early in the stages of the Internet revolution, its full ramifications on human health are only beginning to emerge.

One thing is clear: information technology is changing social institutions, group and individual behavior, and influencing public policy.

In the health arena, information technology is changing health education and prevention services. Consumers seek health information online, using the same databases as providers, and partly as a result of this, power relationships between patients and providers are shifting. Communities are taking advantage of new technology to empower themselves with a greater focus on health as a community asset. This shift occurs within a global context of social inequality, of very real "gaps" in health status between technological "haves" and "have-nots," sometimes referred to as the “digital divide.” This course will offer an introduction to the possibilities and limitations of electronic communication media for health education and interventions.

Electronic media of all kinds have been important to the development of health communication, especially public health campaigns. While blogs and bloggers have created something of a stir, if not a wholesale revolution, in journalism for their ability to shift the center of knowledge and authority. Blogging has also been very important in the field of education, for many of these same reasons (Downes, 2004). Yet, what’s been less well-explored is the potential of blogging for health communication, and that’s part of what we’ll be exploring in this class.