Harrington Edits Nationally Recognized Health Communication Issue

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 11, 2015) — A special issue of Health Communication was recently published that not only featured five University of Kentucky authors but was also edited by Nancy Harrington, associate dean for research in the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky. Health Communication, published by Taylor and Francis, is the premier health journal in the communication discipline.

The special issue of the magazine focused on the 2014 Kentucky Conference on Health Communication (KCHC), of which Harrington is the chair and program planner.  KCHC is supported by a grant through the National Cancer Institute and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Four department of Communication faculty members were invited to be preconference speakers and summit manuscripts for rigorous peer review before being included in Health Communication. Harrington, being guest editor for the special issue, was also featured in the magazine with a brief introductory article.

The special issue, which has received national attention, including being listed in the Center for Disease Control's Health Communication Science Digest, focuses on message design. The discipline of communication investigates how people use messages to create understanding and meaning across various contexts, cultures, and channels. Message design considers how messages make an impact.

"We consider the content, format, and structural variations of messages and what impact these variations may have on message effects, such as attitude change of behavior change," said Harrington.

It isn't surprising that UK faculty members were able to play such a vital role in the publication, considering UK has one of the best health communication programs in the nation. The program is supported by nationally and internationally recognized faculty members who are participating in cutting-edge interdisciplinary research to tackle a multitude of health-related problems, such as cancer prevention, oral health promotion, end-of-life decision making, and reduction of hospital readmission rates. This program continues to successfully recruit top master's and doctoral students. In addition, the National Communication Association ranks the program sixth in the nation for applied communication.