The Use of Animated Video to Increase Early Childhood Knowledge about Disability and Their Behavorial Intention Towards Disabled Peers

Abstract

Social media is coming up as a fast growing tool to reach out to people. The Social Networking sites (SNS) provide cost-effective platforms to communicate with large population. However with issues related to media literacy, institutional support and available mechanisms it becomes pertinent to review the potential uses social media can be put into especially in context of the developing countries for an effective health communication. This paper reviews the disparity that exists in accessibility and usage of social media and its interrelated applications and the multiple benefits these applications can be put to use and points out to the inherent challenges in the way of effective communication. Background: In our society that relies on effective and efficient communication, media plays an important role in informing multiple aspects of individuals' lives, including their access to health information. Traditionally, public health organizations have used print and radio media and social marketing frameworks to disseminate important health messages to the public. In the past few decades, electronic media have stepped to the forefront of communication, and public health communication has evolved to reflect this. In the wake of the " Web 2.0 " phenomenon, public health communication strategies are also changing to match the increasingly influential and rapidly evolving social media revolution. There is an abundance of literature summarizing the effectiveness of using traditional media for public health interventions and communications. In general, reviews have found that mass media campaigns in public health can be effective (1-5). Only few research reviews have found that mass media campaigns, in contrast to printed pamphlets, could not cause significant behaviour change in subjects (7). The same reviews had indicated that campaigns were able to increase awareness and recall of public health messages, and that campaigns delivered over web pages, e-mail and other Web 1.0 applications can change behaviour in motivated volunteers (7). Many studies have claimed that media campaigns are more effective when supplemented by some form of environmental or community support (5, 7). The majority of recent evidence emphasizes common challenges in the use of mass media campaigns. Given the diversity of the campaigns, settings, media outlets, and health topics,