Health communication campaigns have been used by health organizations, governments and non-governmental organizations to spread the message about precautions, vaccination and Covid-19 appropriate behaviors like social distancing, wearing masks and hand sanitizing. Despite multiple modes of campaigns, the pandemic hit hard in India.
Epidemiologists had warned that emerging variants of the pandemic virus pose a global threat and millions of people in the LMIC countries who are not fully vaccinated are at great risk. Vaccine immunity of the population is waning. News media reported that there are large numbers of people skipping the mandatory vaccination doses. The rate of inoculation of third dose (precautionary or booster dose) is very low in India. Only 30% of the eligible population has taken the third dose. This would possibly be a challenge for a populous country like India. Health communication campaigns need to be inventive to get the attention of the population and bring in the intended change.
Game-based campaigns can be a novel way to spread awareness and effective mode for behavior-change interventions. This research explores the health communication campaigns and particularly studies the effectiveness of using digital games to engage, educate and contribute to dispel myths and tackle misinformation around vaccination (vaccine hesitancy). The study analyses the theoretical framework for health communication, related literature and measures effectiveness of campaigns in India. The objective is to suggest best ways for policy makers and governments in using digital games as a health communication strategy for public health scenarios.
Department of Mass Communication, School of Arts, Humanities & Commerce, Coimbatore
Strong foundation in research, academic writing skills
Assistant Professor
School of Communication, Coimbatore