H1801415 Reflective Essay: Mass Media and Depression Awareness

This reflective essay examines the impact of mass media on depression awareness and intervention strategies. The essay begins by defining multimedia and its role in disseminating information effectively. It then discusses the importance of public awareness regarding mental health issues, specifically focusing on depression among young people. The essay explores various communication tools, including social and print media, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It outlines aims and objectives for a media campaign addressing depression, including the use of articles, collaborations with bloggers, and live-streamed interviews with doctors. The discussion section delves into health intervention methods like information and advice, and health promotion theories such as education, to effectively target the target audience through social media. The essay concludes by summarizing the plan for health intervention, emphasizing the alignment of intervention methods, health promotion theories, and media choices to promote awareness and support for individuals struggling with depression. The essay also acknowledges the potential challenges, such as the uncertainty of information follow-up.

REFLECTIVE
ESSAY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Rationale......................................................................................................................................1
Scope............................................................................................................................................1
Structure.......................................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Background..................................................................................................................................2
Problem........................................................................................................................................2
Aims and objectives.....................................................................................................................3
Discussion....................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Multimedia can be defined as a content which uses different types of forms such as audio,
video, animation, image, text etc. It is mainly used to make the information attractive so that it
could be delivered to end number of individuals (Ahmed and Bates, 2016). With the help of it,
any type of data could be transmitted, represented, processed and stored in digital format which
could be accessed from different locations. In other words, it could be called as the computer
information that could be represented through different modes such as animation, audio or video.
Mass media is beneficial for population health and wellbeing. The campaigns that are
related to it can directly or indirectly provide favorable results and ignore adverse changes in
health-related behaviors on large population. The Concurrent availability of such services is
beneficial for the large population as it can help them to keep their detailed information in digital
format. It promoted the health of individuals by sharing them current news regarding the issues
that may affect them in future. This essay will be based upon some of the psychological health
issues which could be dealt with the help of mass media. These are depression, stress, eye train,
social withdrawal or lack of sleep etc. The major one which will be discussed in this whole essay
is depression. Multimedia activities are very important to deal with this problem as it can help to
overcome the issue. With the help of mass media individual who is dealing with the challenge
can spend time on internet, listening music and other interesting activities (Costa-Sánchez and
Míguez-González, 2018).
Scope
This part of the assignment will review the evidence supporting effective media efforts in
enhancing public awareness. Additionally, demonstration of the use of variety communication
tolls that are used in disseminating health information will also be covered in this essay.
Structure
There are four major part of the assignment. These are background, problem, aims and
objective and discussion. First one is focused with use of communication tools along with
strengths and weaknesses of media. Problem part is focused with the health issue and the
population which may get affected due to this. Aim and objective section is focused with the
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formulation planned objectives and actions to achieve them. The last part of the whole essay is
discussion that taken the health intervention in to consideration to address the health issues.
MAIN BODY
Background
It is very important to spread awareness regarding the health issues that may affect health
of individuals. There are various types of communication tools which could be used for same
purpose. Some of them are media advocacy, mass media, TV commercials etc. All of them are
used to aware all the individuals regarding the health issues.
Media plays a vital role in enhancing awareness regarding the health issues and helps the
affected people to deal with it. Public awareness is supported by it which results in highly aware
people regarding the negative aspects that may affect their health (Fisher and Weber, 2020).
There are various media which could be used to promote the health issues. These are
social and print media. The main advantage of social media is that it can help to reach maximum
number of youngsters who may get affected by depression. The weakness of social media is that
if the advertiser is not having large number of subscribers then it is not possible to reach
maximum number of individuals.
Strength of print media is that it can help to aware reach the old age individuals and
spread awareness of depression among them. The weakness of print media is that the cost of it is
very high.
Problem
Depression in the mind set of individuals that affect their ability to think and get engaged
in social activity. Main disadvantage of it for population is that it will cause significant
impairment in their daily life. The main causes of this health issue are psychological, social and
biological sources of distress. The major groups that are affected by it are the youngsters and the
old people. One group which will be targeted is young people because the problem of depression
in them is increasing massively. It leads them towards criminal offences and suicide. It is very
important for them to deal with all the life problems properly and consult to their parents or they
can visit a counsellor. It can help them to find right solution for all their issues that are affecting
their daily life and resulting in social withdrawal (Frohlich, 2019).
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The selected mass media for the issue of depression is Internet. Strength of this mass media
is that youngsters are the most valuable users of internet who are the major users of this media as
well as depression highly impacts youngsters, this media can be used to spread awareness among
them. Also, this mass media is cheap and time effective. There is a weakness of this mass media
as well which is Internet is accessible to almost everyone due to which credibility of the
information gained through Internet is low. The technique under Internet mass media which is
selected is social media (Lv, Chirivella and Gagliardo, 2016).
Aims and objectives
For the media campaign addressing the issue of depression, three aims are developed and
stated as below:
 To spread awareness among youngsters about depressions using articles on social media.
 To collaborate with bloggers and vloggers to create and upload content regarding
depression using Internet.
 To live stream interviews of doctors spreading information regarding depression
symptoms, causes, prevention and cure.
For each objective, a various set of activities are planned which will be completed in order to
fulfill the purpose. These activities along with the objectives are analyzed below:
In order to spread awareness about depression through the way of articles on social
media, few activities are vital to be completed. These activities are hire freelance content writers,
check the quality of all the articles and then upload them on multiple social media platforms such
as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc. It is important for this aim of carefully conduct the activity
ion which quality of article will be examined as by this only, the credibility of the content can be
enhanced.
For the second objective of collaborate with bloggers and vloggers, there are also few set
of activities which necessarily be completed. These activities are selecting young bloggers and
vloggers which have followers in millions. Next activity will be to collaborate with them and
then quality check their prepared content before allowing them to upload it on social media.
The third objective is to live stream an interview of doctors to spread information
regarding depression. For this activities which will be required are inviting a doctor, prepare
interview questions and then conduct the interview while live streaming on social media
platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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Discussion
Health intervention is referred as the effort which has been made to improve the health of
people in a society. This intervention helps public service authorities to maintain physical and
mental health of people. There are various methods of health intervention which are suitable
according to the level of impact that health issues levies upon the society. Few examples of
health intervention methods are Health advocacy, peer education method, communication based
method, information and advice, therapeutic change method and many more.
For the health issue of depression, the health intervention method of information and
advice is selected. This method is considered as the best method for the issue of depression. It is
observed that depression is a mental health issue which is highly seen in youngsters and
vulnerable people. Youngsters are the individuals who are at the phase of their lives where they
are smart enough to make their own decision but lacks in experience for making an informed
decision. For such people, any intervention technique which is against their will cannot be used.
The health intervention technique of information and advice will be given to youngster through
the way of Internet mass media so that they can easily access this information without any
complications (Pincus, Wojcieszak and Boomgarden, 2017).
The health intervention method of information and advice will be used as a procedure win
which youngsters will be provided information regarding depression and its causes. This
procedure will not include any type of obligation as information will be provided to youngsters
at their will. This intervention will also allow youngsters to seek medical advice about their
condition and if they are suffering from depression or not.
Heath promotion theories are the approaches which help in promoting a health issue and its
associated causes with cures. There are various health promotion theories such as medical,
behavioral change, education, client centered and societal change. All these promotional theories
are appropriate according to the health issue which is being addressed. For the issue of
depression and the health intervention theory of information and advice, the promotional theory
which is selected is education. Using this theory, efforts will be made so that youngsters will be
educated regarding the medical condition of depression, how it can be caused, what its symptoms
are, what are the prevention measures by which depression can be cured and lastly if someone is
suffering from the condition of depression, then how they can be cured (Riley and Chattoo,
2019).
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In order to spread the information regarding depression, the multi media which is selected
is social media. Using social media, awareness regarding depression will be spread so that it can
be available to wider audience majorly youngsters. Social media is a type of mass media through
which large group of people can be targeted at once. Social media includes various platforms
such as Facebook, Instagram, twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and others will are highly used by
people for the purposes of communication, entertainment and livelihood (Rus and Cameron,
2016).
The health intervention method, health promotion theory and mass media choice are
aligned with each other so that the aims can be fulfilled. The health intervention method of
information and advice will spread the information regarding depression and this intervention is
highly aligned with health promotion theory of education. Information about depression is
planned to be provided according to the individual’s will due to which this process is education.
Both the intervention and theory is then related with the choice of multi media which is social
media. In for to education people and provide information and advice at their will, the most
appropriate media choice is social media as by this people interested in such type of information
can gain insights about depression.
From the above review of intervention, theories and communication channels, it is
expected that this project of spreading awareness regarding depression will be a success. This is
because, no loop holes are left behind in this campaign and due to the strategies planned for
enhancing the credibility of the information; the issue of non reliable information is also
eliminated. The only issue analyzed in this plan is the uncertainty of the follow up of the
information due to which this intervention can face failure as well.
CONCLUSION
The above essay summarizes the plan for health intervention which involves spreading
awareness regarding depression. From the above paper t has been concluded that depression is a
medical condition which mostly seen in youngsters and vulnerable people. This health condition
is important to be communicated with society using mass media communication channels. It has
been also concluded that the appropriate intervention method for the health issue of depression is
information and advice which is aligned with health promotion theory of education and mass
media technique of social media as social media platforms are famous among youngsters and this
combination of intervention, promotion and communication will help in effectively spreading
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awareness regarding depression among youngsters. It has been concluded from above essay, that
this combination is appropriate for fulfilling the developed aims and objectives.
The above paper lacks only has evidence gained from literature which is a huge gap in
knowledge and this gap can only be bridged by practical and primary knowledge.
This paper provides opportunity to conduct a primary research on the usefulness of social
media for spreading valid and reliable medical information.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals:
Ahmed, R. and Bates, B. R. eds., 2016. Health communication and mass media: an integrated
approach to policy and practice. Routledge.
Costa-Sánchez, C. and Míguez-González, M. I., 2018. USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
HEALTH EDUCATION AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATION OF
HOSPITALS. El profesional de la información. 27(5).
Fisher, J. T. and Weber, R., 2020. Innovative health interventions at the intersection of
neuroimaging and multimedia design. In Technology and Health (pp. 333-351).
Academic Press.
Frohlich, D. O., 2019. Multimedia in Mass Communication I. Syllabus. 8(1).
Lv, Z., Chirivella, J. and Gagliardo, P., 2016. Bigdata oriented multimedia mobile health
applications. Journal of medical systems. 40(5). p.120.
Pincus, H., Wojcieszak, M. and Boomgarden, H., 2017. Do multimedia matter? Cognitive and
affective effects of embedded multimedia journalism. Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly. 94(3). pp.747-771.
Riley, A. H. and Chattoo, C. B., 2019. Developing Multimedia Social Impact Entertainment
Programming on Healthy Ageing for Hispanics in the United States. The Journal of
Development Communication. 30(2).
Rus, H. M. and Cameron, L. D., 2016. Health communication in social media: message features
predicting user engagement on diabetes-related Facebook pages. Annals of behavioral
medicine. 50(5). pp.678-689.
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