Values and Justifications in Health Communication Interventions: An Analytic Framework

Abstract

A conceptual framework for analyzing health communication interventions is presented as a systematic approach to identify values and justificationsembedded inmajor facets of the communication intervention: the definition of the problem, the strategies adopted, the intervention stakeholders or its targeted populations, and the evaluation of the program. Although values and ethical concerns are embedded in all facets of health communication interventions, they are often left unexamined, or are taken for granted by practitioners and intervention populations (policy makers and the researchers who analyze, evaluate, or help design and implement them). The development, adaptation, and application of this framework can serve three inter-related purposes: (1) to provide constructs and a systematic approach to examine the design and implementation of interventions from a normative perspective, (2) to contribute to a theoreticalperspective on health interventions as a socialchange phenomenon,and (3) to provide additional criteria for program evaluation and policy-making.