Ethical Considerations of Visual Health Communication Strategies and Their Effects

• In Event: Doing Things With Images: Practices, Strategies, Meanings

Abstract

While health and illness are highly sensitive and private issues with vital importance for every individual, health communicators essentially pursue persuasive targets and aim at manipulating the people’s health-related attitudes and behaviors. Regarding the fact that particularly visuals can enfold a strong affective and persuasive power which is not always in line with health promoting intentions, the relevance of ethical considerations for any health communication effort is evident. The paper thus offers a normative perspective on visuals and visual framing in health communication. On the basis of theoretical and empirical background information in the field of health-related visual communication research, five interconnected main dimensions of ethically relevant effects are described and further discussed: (1) intended and unintended effects, (2) individual- and societal-level effects, (3) intended and unintended audiences, (4) content-specific and content-diffusive effects, (5) short- and long- term effects. Finally, implications for future theory, research, and practice are drawn.

Authors

• Stephanie Geise, U of Erfurt

• Eva Baumann, University of Bielefeld