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Communicating public health messages.

Welcome to Issue 2 of Public Health Research & Practice, our new peerreviewed open-access quarterly journal for policy makers and practitioners (formerly the NSW Public Health Bulletin). Public health practitioners and researchers are often perplexed by how to best convey the value of prevention and the outcomes of their research and programs. The media seem more interested in a new ‘breakthrough’ in the laboratory or an issue in the provision of acute care. Issue 2 explores the challenges in communicating public health messages. The guest editor for this issue, Professor Simon Chapman, AO, is well known to most of our readers for his work in tobacco control, gun control and wind farms, and his interests in communication in public health. Chapman opens our communication theme with a fascinating Perspective about ‘lessons learnt’ during almost 40 years in public health. He provides practical advice about how to be effective in public health advocacy and, indeed, many of his comments apply to any kind of effective communication in public health. The paper demonstrates Chapman’s detailed understanding of the media and interweaves considerations of ethics, interesting case studies and emerging data (www.phrp.com.au/issues/vol2522015/reflectionson-a-38-year-career-in-public-health-advocacy-10-pieces-of-advice-to-earlycareer-researchers-and-advocates). Leask tackles another aspect of communication about public health, namely when to use an adversarial approach. On the vexed, and often heated, topic of child vaccination, Leask argues that an adversarial approach to antivaccination activists simply draws more attention to their cause and can alienate hesitant parents. In her Perspective article Leask looks at factors that influence vaccination attitudes and uptake, and discusses some unintended negative consequences that can arise from a confrontational approach (www. phrp.com.au/issues/vol2522015/should-we-do-battle-with-antivaccinationactivists). Many public health practitioners and policy makers are increasingly interested in social media as a tool for public health communication. Freeman and colleagues investigate the impact of social media in encouraging the adoption of healthy behaviours. In their analysis of nine case studies, they note the lack of outcome evaluation data but conclude that social media hold promise in recruiting participants and motivating them to take limited action Publication date: March 2015 Citation: Redman S. Communicating public health messages. Public Health Res Pract. 2015;25(2):e2521513. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.17061/phrp2521513 Communicating public health messages