Health Communication in a Cultural- Community Framework

Abstract

We live in a world of media, in which there exists a tendency to think of communication
in technological and instrumental terms, setting our sights on mass media. However,
in the particular case of Latin America, communication studies point more and more
towards analyses of communication processes which are understood as the creation
of relationships and the exchange of senses between social actors who share a certain
cultural context. Health communication has been understood for a long time as a tool
for controlling and manipulating individual and collective conducts. Revising these
experiences and carrying out a communication proposal which analyzes several
aspects of social relation ships, allows us to advance towards building a new and
complex vision of social reality. According to this perspective, the communicative point
of view is integrated with other disciplines and with common knowledge, and social
actors who were traditionally outcasts or who were only considered as part of the object
of study are now responsible for changes in their communities. It is int ended that
individuals and groups who form a community can speak out so as to express their
needs and problems and coordinate themselves in order to be actively involved in the
search for solutions, generating a change in the roles traditionally assigned to different
actors in relation to health matters, in particular those regarding power relations.
Community involvement is a civil right and a democratic imperative, but it i s al so a
means for increasing the effectiveness of health initiatives.