Media noise can seriously harm your health

When poor communication produces improper behaviors

This study aims to investigate how media noise and poor information, which find their maximum expression on the Web, generate disorientation in those who interface with the world of health to the point of inducing improper behaviors that can potentially be harmful for people's health. With the projects that are underway, the CfGC wants to analyze the informative needs as perceived by those who contact healthcare facilities and services, thus identifying sources, information, and channels that influence the way they communicate with medical staff. The goal is to induce citizens to adopt correct prevention and lifestyle behaviors.

Communicate health

Defeat functional illiteracy

More and more often the rapid and uncontrolled spread of fake news is attributed to an excessive production of information and consequent media noise that induces individuals to adopt incorrect behaviors, which can often be harmful to them.

The so-called ‘knowledge society’ has catapulted us into a paradoxical situation: despite the massive and continuous spread of means of communication that have never been so technologically powerful, popular, and pervasive and which allow us to have access to the most varied data and information, we haven’t developed the necessary tools to discern what contents are truly authoritative and verified.

The situation is further aggravated when the media noise and functional illiteracy that characterize our society are related  to the world of health, healthcare and the relationship between healthy subjects, patients, doctors, and health professionals. 

Rethinking health in a systemic perspective

The CfGC’s scientific interest stems from the belief that a profound and fruitful dialogue needs to be re-established among doctors, researchers, and health staff and the imagery that citizens have formed from browsing the Web or by word of mouth.

All this is possible by:

  1. helping medical science confront and legitimize the fears, anxieties and questions that come from the social fabric;
  2. bringing the importance of scientifically valid and verified contents to the center of the discussion;
  3. encouraging the various subjects to activate a constant and structured dialogue with medical staff, re-assigning them their role as guide within a process of identifying the cause of illness and in terms of potential recovery.

For this reason, the CfGC is convinced that it is necessary to rethink the world of health and healthcare from a systemic perspective by launching new relationships between all the various stakeholders.

Projects

Who is Afraid of Childbirth?

The CfGC has undertaken a research project entitled “Who is Afraid of Childbirth?” in collaboration with Professor Felice Petraglia, Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Director of the Maternal-Infant Department of the Careggi University Hospital in Florence.

By planning and conducting a survey through the use of an original questionnaire, the project aims to listen, collect and analyze the feelings and possible fears of a representative sample of pregnant women regarding their imagery related to birth.

The ultimate goal is, in fact, to reconstruct the level of knowledge and awareness with which women are approaching this important experience, identifying knowledge needs and bringing them back to the experts and professionals who are able to provide adequate answers.

Master in Medical-Scientific and Health Services Communication

The CfGC is activating a first level Master in “Medical-Scientific and Health Services Communication” in collaboration with professors Felice Petraglia, Marco Carini and Francesco Annunziato of the Careggi University Hospital in Florence. 

The aim of the Master program is to train communication and information professionals by placing highly qualified content provided by scientists of national and international value at the center of their training. It is for this reason that the teaching staff of the Master is made up of professors, doctors, and professionals working within public and private institutions and organizations, as well as recognized experts in the field of communication and information.

In this way, the program strives to provide basic literacy in the field of health and health services to all those who intend to deal with communication and information in the medical, scientific, and health fields. Knowing the basics of medicine, biomedical research, and the functioning of health services is the starting point for consciously building high-quality communication strategies based on authoritative content.