Page 179 - Cultural Competence in Health Education

Communication and Cultural Competence 157

advocacy is through social organization and action. Social action is the empowerment
or mobilization of community members to take matters into their own hands, in this
case for the improvement of their mutual health and the protection of their environ-
ment. The health educator is the change agent for such a mobilization, using effective
communication strategies to begin and support the process.

COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING TECHNIQUES
When dealing with various cultures, it is of primary importance for health educators to

first identify their target audience before proceeding to communicate and market prod-

ucts or ideas. Doing this first will save the health educator precious time and money.
Additionally, it will enable the health educator to be more effective in communicating
and marketing (more responsive to the needs, demands, and wants of the target audi-
ence) because he or she will understand the culture he or she is dealing with. There are
many different techniques used in marketing public health (including health educa-
tion) to promote social change (Siegel & Lotenberg, 2007). Some of the common mar-
keting methods are brochures, mailings, advertisements (in magazines, newspapers,
billboards, and so forth), commercials, and Web sites. Although these are all effective
techniques, it is necessary to determine one ’ s target audience prior to selecting a
method. If marketing professionals are trying to market a health product to a poor,
rural village in a developing country, using a Web site or e - mail would not be effective
because the villagers most likely would not have access to these sources.
Health education professionals should realize that there are differences in the
ways people learn and think. Even in the developed world, not everybody thinks
the same way. Cultures are unique, and in order for health educators to be effective in
communicating with the public they need to identify the differences in learning and
thinking patterns among the various cultures. Making false assumptions about a cul-
ture and stereotyping (generalizing based on premature or flawed assumptions) are

common phenomena. But they can negatively affect the practice of education when
they are used in marketing a new product to a target population. It is important to con-
sider not only a country ’ s dominant culture but also its subgroup cultures. Health
educators ’ knowledge and understanding of such subcultures can help them to plan
programs that will be accepted by the desired audiences.
A given message will not be not equally effective in all cultures. In order to
understand why this is so, health educators need to be aware of the different communica-
tion strategies and their uses. Communication strategies are tied to effective program
planning and marketing techniques. Understanding a community ’ s culture is one way to
establish good marketing techniques for that community. This cultural understanding
makes it easier to transmit information to the community. For example, Japanese audi-
ences prefer indirect verbal communication and symbolism as the source of information,
the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria prefer spoken words embedded in language
codes, symbols, images, songs, and metaphors, and American advertising primarily
relies on both spoken and written words as the source of information. Marketing

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