Overview back to top

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has leading programs in journalism and mass communication, public health, information and library science, psychology and allied fields that are working together to build a new science of health communication. Our Certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Communication provides residential graduate students enrolled in these programs the opportunity to receive specialized training in health communication. The Certificate prepares students to use theory-informed health communication strategies in applied practice, academic and research settings.

Students select one of two specialized tracks.

* The psychological processes track focuses on how health communication leads people to change their health behaviors.
* The integrated communication strategies track focuses on how to create and deliver health communication messages and interventions through interpersonal communication, print media and electronic media.

Students complete three graduate level courses (three credits each), participate in a year-long colloquia series on emerging issues in health communication, and receive guidance on conducting health communication research for their theses or dissertations.

Courses back to top

Descriptions are available at http://ihc.unc.edu/courses.html

Required for all Students:

• Interdisciplinary Health Communication Colloquium Seminar in Interdisciplinary Health Communication

Psychological Processes Track (students select 2):

Health Behavior/Health Education:

• Social and Behavioral Foundations of Health Education

• Social Psychological Theories of Individual Health Behavior

Information and Library Science:

• Consumer Health Information

• Human-Computer Interaction

• Human Information Interaction

• User Perspectives in Information Systems and Services

Journalism and Mass Communication:

• Process and Effects of Mass Communication

• Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction

• Theories of Mass Communication

Psychology:

• Health Psychology

• Attitude Change

• Seminar in Clinical Health Psychology

Public Health:

• Communication for Health-Related Decision Making

Integrated Communication Strategies Track (students select 2):

Health Behavior/Health Education:

• Development of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Intervention eHealth

• Information and Library Science:

• Consumer Health Information

• Health Sciences and Information

• Systems Analysis

• User Interface Design

• Web Development

• Journalism and Mass Communication:

• Concepts of Marketing

• Crisis Communication

• Integrated Marketing Communications

• Campaign Planning

• Medical Journalism

• Medical Reporting for the Electronic Media

• Public Relations Foundations

• Science Documentary Television

• Seminar in Communication for Social Change

• Seminar in Public Relations

• Nutrition:

• Dietary Change Interventions

• Public Health:

• Communication for Health-Related Decision Making

Information and Library Science:

• Consumer Health Information

• Health Sciences and Information

• Systems Analysis

• User Interface Design

• Web Development

Journalism and Mass Communication:

• Concepts of Marketing

• Crisis Communication

• Integrated Marketing Communications

• Campaign Planning

• Medical Journalism

• Medical Reporting for the Electronic Media

• Public Relations Foundations

• Science Documentary Television

• Seminar in Communication for Social Change

• Seminar in Public Relations

Nutrition:

• Dietary Change Interventions

Public Health:

• Communication for Health-Related Decision Making

Faculty back to top

Over 25 affiliated IHC-affiliated scholars teach or conduct research on health communication.

For a comprehensive faculty list, see http://ihc.unc.edu/people.html.

IHC Certificate Committee

Jane D. Brown (UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication) Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (media and adolescent health)

Noel T. Brewer (UNC-CH School of Public Health) Ph.D., Rutgers University (medical decision making)

Barbara M. Wildemuth (UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science) Ph.D., Drexel University (use of information technology related to health)

Summary of Department Research Completed or in Process back to top

Brewer, N. T., & Hallman, W. K. (2006). Subjective and objective risk as predictors of influenza vaccination during the vaccine shortage of 2004-2005. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 43, 1379-1386.

Brewer, N. T., Salz, T., Lillie, S. E. (in press). The long-term effects of false-positive mammograms: A systematic review. Annals of Internal Medicine. Brock, T. C., & Green, M. C. (Eds.). (2005). Persuasion: Psychological insights and perspectives (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Brown, J. D., Halpern, C. T., & L’Engle, K. L. (2005). Mass media as a sexual super peer for early maturing girls. Journal of Adolescent Health, 36(5), 420-427.

Brown J. D., L'Engle K. L., Pardun C. J., Guo G., Kenneavy K., Jackson C. (2006).
Sexy media matter: Exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines predicts black and white adolescents' sexual behavior. Pediatrics, 117(4),1018-1027.

Cassell, M., Jackson, C., Cheuvront, J. B. (1998). Health communications on the Internet: An effective channel for health behavior change? Journal of Health Communication, 3, 57-65.

Geary, C. W., Burke, H. M., Neupane, S., Castelnau, L., & Brown, J. D. (2006).
Does MTV reach an appropriate audience for HIV prevention messages? Evidence from MTV viewership data in Nepal and Brazil. Journal of Health Communication, 11(7), 665-681.

Green, M. C. (2006). Narratives and cancer communication. Journal of Communication, 56, S163-183.

Ivory J., Kalyanaraman, S. (in press). The effects of technological advancement and violent content in video games on players’ feelings of presence, involvement, physiological arousal, and aggression. Journal of Communication. J

ackson, C., Brown, J. D., L’Engle, K. L. (in press). R-rated movies, bedroom televisions, and initiation of smoking by white and black adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Kalyanaraman S., Sundar S. S. (2006). The psychological appeal of personalized content in Web portals: Does customization affect attitudes and behaviors? Journal of Communication, 56, 110-132.

Kreuter, M. W., Green, M. C., Cappella, J. N., Slater, M. D., Wise, M. E., Storey, D., Clark, E. M., O'Keefe, D. J., Erwin, D. O., Holmes, K., Hinyard, L. J., Houston, T., & Woolley, S. (in press). Narrative communication in cancer prevention and control: A framework to guide research and application. Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Lillie, S. E., Brewer, N. T., Rimer, B. K., O’Neill, S. C., Morrill, E. F., Dees, E. C., & Carey, L. A. (in press.) Retention and use of breast cancer recurrence risk information from genomic tests: The role of health literacy. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Linnan, L. A., Wildemuth, B. M., Gollop, C., Hull, P., Silbajoris, C., & Monnig, R. (2004). Public librarians as a resource for promoting health: results from the Health for Everyone in Libraries Project (HELP) librarian survey. Health Promotion Practice, 5(2), 182-190.

Pierce, J. P., Distefan, J. M., Jackson, C., White, M. M., Gilpin, E. A. (2002). Does tobacco marketing undermine the influence of recommended parenting in discouraging adolescents from smoking? American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 23(2), 73-81.

Ribisl K. M. (2003). The potential of the internet as a medium to encourage and discourage youth tobacco use. Tobacco Control, 12(Suppl 1), i48-i59. Ribisl K. M., Williams R. S., Kim A. E. (2003). Internet cigarette sales to minors.
Journal of the American Medical Association, 290, 1356-1359.

Ribisl K. M., Winkleby M. A., Fortmann S. P., Flora J. A. (1998). The interplay of socioeconomic status and ethnicity on Hispanic and White men's cardiovascular disease risk and health communication patterns. Health Education Research, 13, 407-417.

Sundar S. S., Kalyanaraman S., Brown J. (2003). Explicating Website interactivity: Impression-formation effects in political campaign sites. Communication Research, 30, 30-59.

Wildemuth, B. M. (2004). The effects of domain knowledge on search tactic formulation. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 55(3), 246-258.

Wildemuth, B. M., Friedman, C. P., Keyes, J., & Downs, S. M. (2000). A longitudinal study of database-assisted problem solving. Information Processing & Management, 36, 445-459.

Contacts back to top

IHC Certificate Committee
360 Carroll Hall
Campus Box 3365
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3365
Phone: (919) 962-4089
Fax: (919) 962-0620

Also see http://ihc.unc.edu/requirements.html#Committee

Websites

Interdisciplinary Health Communication Certificate at UNC-Chapel Hill: http://ihc.unc.edu/certificate.html

Participating Academic Units

School of Journalism and Mass Communication: http://jomc.unc.edu/

School of Public Health

Department of Health Behavior and Health Education: http://www.sph.unc.edu/hbhe/

Department of Nutrition: http://www.sph.unc.edu/nutr/

School of Information and Library Science: http://ils.unc.edu/index.html/

College of Arts and Sciences : http://artsandsci.unc.edu/

Department of Psychology: http://psychology.unc.edu/