II. International Conference on Communication, Media, Technology and Design 02-04 May 2013 Famagusta – North Cyprus 296 THE ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF MASS MEDIA TOOLS ON WOMEN’S HEALTH PROMOTION A.Burcu Akbulut*, Nuriye Büyükkayacı Duman**, Gülay Yılmazel*** * Research Assistant, Hitit UniversityHealth School, Corum/TURKEY **Assistant Professor, Hitit UniversityHealth School, Corum/TURKEY *** Research Assistant, Phd. Hitit UniversityHealth School, Corum/TURKEY *Corresponding author e-mail:aburcu.akbulut@hotmail.com Abstract Instruction: Media is very important for health education. The purpose of this research that women attending in a Centre of Public Education in Çorum who they have used their health and health-related media resources that are planned in order to determine what contributions by. Methods-materials: The research will be a descriptive cross-sectional study research model. As a data collection tool was created by scanning in this topic by researchers on literature information consists of 25 questions. Research findings will be evaluated by entering the SPSS 17.0 database. The analysis of the findings, the number of distributions, frequency distributions, and Chi-square statistical method will be used. Keywords: Mass media tools, women, health promotion. Introduction The World Health Organization's health, not just the absence of disease and infirmity, physically, spiritually and socially defined as a state of complete well-being. (Fişek, 1982, p.15) This development falls within the scope of health to be sustainable well-being. Health promotion, in order to be moving in the direction of ensuring their optimal health status, aims to change their way of life. (Yardım and Gögen, 2009, p.29.) Women's health, family and community from the psycho-social factors, individual health status of women, are affected by many factors such as fertility behavior. Education, employment, gender roles, number of children, the elderly and frequent delivery very early and those that come to mind first. (Women and media policy document, 2008, p.20). Women and health issues can be grouped into two main headings. First, women's health issues and disease risks, and the other existing services for women and by women, access to health services is related to how much they can be used. Women's health issues, and in particular the risk of diseases affecting public health problem in women's health in general. The life expectancy of women is longer compared to men, yet women undergo more illnesses and stress than men in most of the societies. It has been acknowledged that women experience problems related to reproduction. These problems might occur both in reproductive and menopause period.( Akın A, Mıhçıokur S. , 2010). It is a known fact that many women still work under negative conditions in Turkish society. Again, it is reality that women are exposed to violence more than men. In case of married woman’s working, she excessively suffers from the stress caused by the working environment and being “the mother of the house” situation. Özbaş, S., Özkan, S. , 2010, p.541). The improvement of health term refers to several sectors concerning collaboration with health. Mass media is one of the most important ones. Mass media are the materials we use often and of certain roles in daily life. Mass media have significant effects on knowledge acquisition and transferring this knowledge into behaviour. Among the mass media, TV is an eye-catching and reachable one among other devices. (Güler Ç. , 2006, p.2). In recent studies, we observe that people lead TV-focused lives. The commercials are highly used since they have a highly convincing power on people. Being another mass media, the newspapers are known to be followed by a specific segment of the Turkish society. The fact that TV serves everything as ‘ready-made’ cause idleness among people, and consequently people do not read newspapers.(Yıldız, H., 2006, p.96.) In recent conferences held with a view to improve the health, the relationship between the health and mass media is questioned, and this leads to curiosity. (Güler, Ç.., 2006, p.10). Methods And Procedures The purpose of this study is to find out how women follow the mass media and the effects of these media upon women’s perceptions and to what extent they affect their behaviours about health in our society. The current study took place between March 1 th and 15 th in Public Training Centre in Çorum city centre. A written consent was taken prior to this research. There are course related to computers, embroidery, music and marbling art in this centre. The sampling was not done on purpose, the women who already had been attending were included in the sampling. In this vein, 83 women were accessible. Interviews, prepared by benefitting from the literature, were held with the women and they were interviewed through face-to-face method. The reason why the women in the public training centre was assumed to reflect the profile to a great extent. The data were analysed through SPSS 17.0 and numbers, percentage, frequency, frequency distribution and chi-square statistical method were used in the statistical analysis. Results Table 3.1. The socio-demographical characteristics of the research group Sex Number % Female 83 100 Age group 18-22 73 88 23-27 10 12 Marital status single 51 61,4 Married 32 38,6 Educational background Primary school 26 31,3 Secondary school 49 59,0 High school 8 9,7 Profession Housewife 29 34,9 Officer 2 2,4 Health personnel 23 27,7