Interrelationship of Health Communication,
Health Literacy, Therapeutic Communication
and other Related Concepts
SEMIU BELLO*
Abstract
Since the evolution of health communication as a theory and practice, the
field has integrated many related concepts from other disciplines into its
scholarship and professional practice. As such, scholars have described the
field as hybrid and multi-disciplinary. This analysis adopts the explorative
framework to discuss the interrelationship of health communication and
health literacy, therapeutic communication or patient-provider
communication, social and behavioural change communication, social
marketing and media literacy. The study is a contribution to health
communication scholarship in Nigeria to facilitate better understanding,
appreciation and application.
Key Words: Health Communication, Media Literacy, Health Literacy,
Social Marketing, Social and Behavioural Communication,
Therapeutic Communication.
Introduction
The multi-disciplinary nature of health communication makes scholars in this domain to
build their scholarship engagement around relevant and related concepts from other
disciplines. In the process, therefore, health communication has adopted a wide range of
related concepts from other disciplines and has the potential to adopt many other
emerging concepts in the future to enhance and improve health outcomes among
members of communities. The nature of human beings, who are described as an
enigmatic whole by philosophers (Berdyaev, 1944; Omatseye, 2003; Pessin, 2002),
whose nature continues to generate theories and models among scholars; and the
complexities that characterise health as a phenomenon are among other justifications for
health communication to adopt various concepts from other disciplines in order to
achieve its theoretical thrust and practical purposes. This emphasises why health
communication is described as a hybrid and interdisciplinary field of inquiry. This is
further reflected in its conceptual framework. For instance, health communication is
defined asa multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach to reach different audiences and
share health- related information with the goal of influencing, engaging and
supporting individuals, communities, health professionals, special groups, policymakers
and the public to champion, introduce, adopt, or sustain a behaviour, practice, or policy
that will ultimately improve health outcomes (Schiavo, 2007). The United States
*Semiu Bello is with the Department of Media and Communication, School of Language, Political and Social
Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8020, New Zealand
JCMR
Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 6, No. 2, October 2014, 175 – 194
©Delmas Communications Ltd.