Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 194
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-4422-2124-6 • Hardback • September 2013 • $133.00 • (£102.00)
978-1-4422-2125-3 • Paperback • September 2013 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
978-1-4422-2126-0 • eBook • September 2013 • $47.50 • (£37.00)
J. David Johnson is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Kentucky.
Dosage is an important reframing of how we think about the challenges of communicating about health. Johnson thoughtfully uses the metaphor of pharmacological dose and demonstrates its applicability across a range of contexts, from the doctor breaking bad news to a patient, to distributed teams seeking to coordinate activity, to health promotion campaigns for behavior change. Health communicators -- whether marketing professionals, nurses and social workers, marketing practitioners, or social media bloggers -- can easily pick up lessons here from a wealth of scholarship about message development, channel selection, timing and frequency, and how to avoid the negative consequences of too much communication about a health issue. Here is a top-flight scholar offering us a new way to re-vision the challenges of professional communication.
— James W. Dearing, Michigan State University
This textbook is long overdue and unprecedented in the social scientific literature. The question of how much is enough is seldom addressed in research and Johnson's book takes a critical and empirically-based examination of this question in health communication.
— Thomas Feeley, Professor and Chair of Communication, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Citing a dearth of information available to the physician for guidance in imparting medical information to patients, Johnson presents the "dosage metaphor." With a focus on amount, frequency, sequencing, delivery system, interaction with other agents, and contraindications he provides answers to fundamental problems that all health communicators face. There are nine chapters: introduction and overview; definition and the use of metaphor; interpersonal communication; inter-professional teams; mass media; diffusion and dissemination; change; health information technology; and final analysis. Inter alia, he describes communication campaigns, new health information technologies, social media, the wisdom of crowds, and discusses the policy issues raised by the dosage metaphor. This concise and interesting book is for doctors, nurses, social workers, and marketers. There are figures, tables boxes, and a bibliography.
— Book News, Inc.
A fresh approach to communications instruction that applies traditional communication theory to the healthcare environment that results in improved patient outcomes.Demonstrates how health communicators—whether marketing professionals, nurses and social workers, marketing practitioners, or social media bloggers—can apply lessons derived from the organizing principle of dosage to:- message development,
- channel selection,
- timing, and
- frequency.
A separate section on interpersonal communication that focuses learners’ attention on crucial questions such as “How much do I reveal and when?” to help students see the immediate relevancy of the concepts being introduced.Special features on topics such as the benefits and challenges of working in interprofessional teams will help prepare students for today’s healthcare settings.Annotated further reading lists at the end of each chapter offer ready-made current sources for extended learning or individualized reading assignments.