A unique transdisciplinary collaboration of public communication and public health researchers, delivering insights to inform preventive programs and design effective interventions.
Health Communication Research Group
Preventive and clinical approaches to health increasingly acknowledge the social dimensions of health such as lifestyle and psychosocial and environmental influences, and recognise the need to address these alongside provision of healthcare services. The UTS Health Communication Research Group supports this holistic approach by bringing together leading researchers in public communication and public health to collaboratively study health issues and inform the design of effective strategies and campaigns.
The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the importance of effective communication and its role in building trust and improving and maintaining public health.
The UTS Health Communication Research Group provides a ‘one stop’ source of research expertise across public communication, health promotion, and health education employing qualitative and quantitative approaches including innovative research methods to engage with diverse and marginalised communities as well as mainstream demographics.
Hallmarks of our approach are consultation, collaboration, and co-design to deeply engage with communities to understand their lived experience and mobilise healthy behaviours and participation in health interventions.
Research areas
Our researchers are experienced leaders in studying and informing policy, programs, and campaigns in relation to:
- Combatting health misinformation and disinformation
- Combatting obesity and diabetes
- Digital technologies and platforms for health promotion
- Early detection and treatment of cancer
- Engagement with CALD /BAME communities
- Evaluating the effectiveness of health communication
- Ethical media reporting of health
- Healthy ageing
- Health literacy
- Infectious disease control programs (including leading global research for the World Health Organization in relation to COVID-19)
- Living with dementia
- Mental health
- Sexual health
- Smoking cessation
- and many other areas of health communication, health promotion, and health education.
Group members
Core members, UTS Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, School of Communication
- Distinguished Professor Jim Macnamara
- Professor Alan McKee
- Professor Maureen Taylor
- Associate Professor Bhuva Narayan
- Dr Catriona Bonfiglioli
- Dr Paul Byron
- Dr Penelope Russon
Core members, UTS Faculty of Health
- Professor Amanda Wilson
- Dr Abela Mahimbo
- Dr Jane Frawley
- Dr Melissa Kang – Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Public Health
- Ms Michele Rumsey – WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development
Visiting and associate members
- Professor Emeritus Anne Gregory – Visiting Professor, University of Huddersfield, UK
- Dr Oxana Onilov – Research Associate, World Health Organization, Western Pacific Office
- Dr Gail Kenning – Visiting Fellow, Ageing Futures Institute, University of New South Wales
- Dr Michael Camit – Research Associate, South Western Sydney Local Health District.
The group also supports higher research degree students in relevant areas.
Membership is open to researchers with expertise to support the goals of the group.
Research projects
Examples of our current and recent research projects include:
- World Health Organization (WHO) – ongoing evaluation of global COVID-19 communication and promotion of World Health Days
- Australian Research Council (ARC) funded study of media portrayals of obesity (Bonfiglioli, 2016)
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded study of ‘Investigating corporate influences on media reporting of health’
- NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service – design and evaluation of promotion of breast screening among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women (e.g., Macnamara & Camit, 2017);
- UK National Health Service (NHS) – review of COVID-19 communication and the toll on health workers during the pandemic (Gregory, Nichols, & Underwood, 2021)
- Challenging misinformation and disinformation – a global study (Macnamara, 2021).
Contact us
Convenor: Jim Macnamara – jim.macnamara@uts.edu.au
Research Office: FASS.FRO@uts.edu.au
