Using Communication Strategies to Promote Sexual Health: Can Mass Media Get in Bed with the “Female” Condom?

Abstract

Many public health students receive little, if any, formal training in communicating health information to the public. Public health practitioners, however, are regularly asked to use communication strategies to convey health information. The lesson plan was designed to teach students mass communication strategies in the context of sexual health promotion. It is expected that by participating in the activity, students will be better prepared to communicate sexual health information in their future roles as public health practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• Lesson plan
• sexual health
• communication
• media
• female condom

Sarah Mariel Levine was completing a Master of Science degree in Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She was the teaching assistant for the Sexuality and Public Health course at the Harvard School of Public Health for two years. S. Bryn Austin, ScD, is a researcher in the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and Assistant Professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She teaches the course, “Sexuality and Public Health” at the Harvard School of Public Health.