General Considerations When Selecting and Presenting Data

Learning Objectives: • List general principles that influence data selection and presentation to lay audiences. • Describe three approaches about how data can be selected that can influence lay audiences.

Abstract:

The purpose of this session is to provide a good background about the basics of communication, and how lay audiences consider data in this context. It will cover the crucial roles that well-known psychological concepts have in whether, and how, audiences attend to and process data and other scientific information. In addition to covering the fundamentals of source, channel, message, and audiences, and the two-way nature of health communication, it will describe the current communication environment and the increasing ways in which push-pull approaches are used. The Elaboration Likelihood Model will be covered briefly, as well as certain tendencies of audiences, such as selective exposure, confirmation bias, and common heuristics used by people when faced with data. A main emphasis of the session will be on audience analysis for each of the lay audiences (policy makers, the public, and the press), with lay health beliefs, and the “less is more” approach for data, highlighted.