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Overview back to top
The University of Georgia offers M.A. and PhD degrees in Health Communication and a Masters of Public Health with an emphasis in Health Communication. The graduate program in Health Communication provides students a foundation in the application of communication theory and research to enhance the health of individuals and communities. Our well-ranked graduate program offers nationally recognized faculty focused on health and risk communication, social influence, relational communication, health disparities, message production and reception. A limited number of students are admitted yearly and funded via research or teaching assistantships. We offer a variety of research experiences for graduate students through our CDC-funded Southern Center for Communication, Health and Poverty (1 of 3 funded centers of Excellence in Health Communication and Marketing). Students in our program study health communication from diverse perspectives emphasizing mastery of the ways that interpersonal, social influence, and mass communication theories are applied in a health context.
Courses back to top
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Required Courses:
Communication Theory,
Social Scientific Research Methods in Speech Communication,
Communication Education,
Introduction to Graduate Studies,
Research Practicum,
Research Methodology Courses (PhD only)
Electives offered in the Department of Speech Communications:
Seminar in Health Communication,
Seminar in Risk Communication,
Seminar in Communication and Social Influence,
Seminar in Interpersonal Communication Theory,
Seminar in Nonverbal Communication,
Language and Communication Behavior,
Relational Communication,
Advanced Topics in Interpersonal Communication,
Seminar in Intercultural Communication.
Directed Study and Special Topics in Speech Communication.
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Electives offered in the College of Public Health:
Program Planning in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention,
Research Methods in Health and Human Performance,
Aging and Health,
Women in Health and Illness,
Social Marketing of Health: Theory and Process,
Worksite Health Promotion,
Program Evaluation in Health Promotion and Health Education,
Community Health Promotion,
Analysis and Prevention of Injury and Violence,
Health Behavior,
Human Ecology of Health and Illness,
Intervention and Evaluation of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention,
Research Seminar in Health Promotion and Behavior,
Critique of Literature in Health,
Epidemiology
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Faculty back to top
Vicki S. Freimuth, (Ph.D., Florida State University), Professor, Health & Risk Communication, social change. Director of the CDC Center for Excellence in Health Communication and Marketing. freimuth@uga.edu
Jerold L. Hale (Ph.D., Michigan State University), Professor, Relational communication, social influence, small group communication. jhale@uga.edu
Tina M. Harris (Ph.D., University of Kentucky), Associate Professor. Communication in interracial relationships, ethnic disparities in health & religious frameworks, race & pedagogy. tmharris@uga.edu
Jennifer L. Monahan (Ph.D., University of Southern California), Associate Professor. Interpersonal and health communication with an emphasis on message production and reception. jmonahan@uga.edu
Donald L. Rubin (Ph.D., University of Minnesota), Professor Emeritus. Language Analysis and Health Communication: cultural diversity, literacy, and risk messages. drubin@uga.edudrubin@uga.eduJ
Jennifer A. Samp (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison), Associate Professor. Relational communication, message production, conflict, strategic communication.
jasamp@uga.edu
Lijiang Shen (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison), Assistant Professor. Persuasion, social influence and health communication. Message framing & message processing lshen@uga.edu
Summary of Department Research back to top
Health communication faculty and graduate students are involved in several funded studies within the Center. The CDC awarded UGA a Center of Excellence in Health Communication & Marketing in 2004. Our Southern Center for Communication, Health, and Poverty examines the communication of health risks to the poor in the South and is 1 of 3 Centers of Excellence funded by CDC. Dr. Condit also recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a study examining lay and expert models of gene-environment interaction. Dr. Freimuth also has funding from the state of Georgia to evaluate risk communication in public health emergencies.
Below we describe some of our recent research in health communication:
Celeste Condit, Tina Harris, & Lijiang Shen are using qualitative interviews to develop mental maps of low income urban and rural Georgians’ models of the relationship between genes and environment in heart disease, lung cancer, and diabetes. Preventive messages based on these models are being designed, tested and then disseminated.
Vicki Freimuth’s current work examines the degree to which the poor across the South believe they are susceptible to multiple health risks, have adopted health protective behaviors to respond to these risks, and have chosen to respond to some risks and not others. She is also studying how new technologies are being used in risk communication.
Jennifer Monahan is conducting two field experiments to examine the experiential decision-making style of low-income adolescents to smoke cigarettes and how this style affects how they process anti-smoking media messages. She also hopes to understand more about the effects and efficacy of anti-smoking media messages with adolescents and teens.
Don Rubin pursues an active line of research on cross-cultural health communication. He recently collected formative data for a radio "edutainment" intervention to promote healthy communication between males and females in the Kikamba-speaking region of Kenya. He also is collaborating with Dr. Panetta to examine smoking behavior in prisons.
Lijiang Shen’s research examines the impact of message frames on the processing of health messages and how different frames affect perceptions of risk. Another project examines the association between behavior approach/ inhibition systems and emotional experience after exposure to persuasive messages. In addition, he is currently collaborating with Jennifer Samp to examine the role of empathy in health communication.
Contacts back to top
Vicki Freimuth
Center for Health and Risk Communication
501 D.W. Brooks Drive, Athens, GA 30605
(706) 542-0586
(706) 683-0853 (fax)
Websites:
Department of Speech Communication: http://www.uga.edu/spc
Southern Center for Communication Health and Poverty: http://www.southerncenter.uga.edu/
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