Campaigning for Health

Today, the fields of health promotion and health campaigning are strongly influenced by strategies developed in health communication. In less than fifteen years the topic of ‘communication’ moved to the center of attention in health campaigning research. Today’s health campaigns are health communication campaigns! The optimism of politicians and health promotion experts in the U.S.A. and in Europe relating to health communication is tremendous. In the context of the new Europe 2020 Strategy European health officials praise the possible benefits of eHealth solutions, and the health experts of the Healthy People 2020 agenda in the United States especially stress the close relationship between health communication and health information technology as ‘central to health care, public health, and the way our society views health.’ Beyond doubt, health communication innovated and professionalized the areas of health promotion and health campaigning. With its nine chapters the book makes no claims of being complete with respect to the title ‘Campaigning for Health’. The exemplary approach adopted here nevertheless should give the reader a chance to stay focused and to get a feel for the tight interdependence of the conceptual, methodological and practical strategies in the field of health communication campaigning.