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Health-related issues are widely covered in news agencies by medical and health journalists. The quantity, format and quality of their coverage influence the general public as well as policymakers and professions. Current studies and observations suggest that news agencies are more dominated by medical topics (disease, symptoms, epidemiology, treatment and medicines) than general public health issues (risk prevention, health protection, education and promotion). This study explores the causes of the current situation in Iran and generates solutions for supporting health-promoting media that may also prove beneficial for other countries.

A qualitative study was conducted to explore the coverage of health-related topics in selected news agencies. Stakeholders, including health journalists, health professionals and public relations staff at the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education were interviewed. Data were collected until data saturation was reached. The transcripts of all the 17 interviews conducted were analyzed using conventional content analysis.

Four groups of causes were identified, including individual factors, organizational factors, socioeconomic factors and the different nature of medicine and public health. The participants proposed several solutions that were classified into three categories, including the empowerment of stakeholders through capacity development, organizational change and mutual communication and culture change.

Creating health-promoting media is a complex but urgent task, and providing a comprehensive and deep understanding of the dynamic interdependencies of the multiple factors at play in it and developing and implementing the most effective interventions for it requires a systematic approach.

The article aims to illuminate this issue by applying the cultural capital theory to the processes of health production and distribution. It questions social marketing’s role in addressing cultural resources as barriers to and/or facilitators of behavioural change. Social marketing is often criticized for its limited ability to enhance social goals and for aiding the reproduction of social inequalities.

The theoretical framework of this conceptual paper is based on the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of human capital forms. It establishes an association between cultural capital and social marketing in solving social problems.

All social marketing interventions affect cultural resources that people might use in the field of health. The findings endorse the utilization of cultural capital as a strategic analytical tool in social marketing.

The article demonstrates how Bourdieu’s capital theory can be applied to help social marketers make important strategic decisions. In particular, it argues that using specific notions of embodied cultural capital and objectified cultural capital can inform decisions on adopting a downstream, midstream or upstream approach.

A relatively neglected concept in the social marketing field is introduced: cultural capital. It aims to contribute to the theoretical debate with regard to strategic social marketing orientations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of school staff on a nutrition health project implemented via an ICT‐based learning environment in a secondary school (7th to 9th grades).

The study was a part of the wider European Network for Health Promoting Schools programme (ENHPS; since 2008, Schools for Health in Europe SHE) in Finland, and particularly its sub‐project, From Puijo to the World with Health Lunch, which sought to renew secondary schools' nutrition health education by developing and utilising an ICT‐based learning environment using participatory action research. The data were collected by means of recall interviews conducted with 12 teachers, two school health nurses and two school catering managers after the nutrition health project ended. The data were analysed with qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti software.

The findings regarding the views of the school staff – teachers, school health nurses and school catering managers – on the nutrition health project implemented via an ICT‐based learning environment at the end of the three‐year educational development project revealed five main categories: the basis of multidisciplinary education in nutrition health, motivation to lifelong nutrition health learning, school community support of nutrition health activities, operational ICT culture in the nutrition health project and ICT for the nutrition health project process.

The sample of school staff consisted of two secondary schools in Eastern Finland, and the results cannot be generalised widely due to the small, geographically defined sample. However, the results are suggestive for other schools elsewhere in Finland.

Development of a nutrition health project via an ICT‐based learning environment as a project involves the entire school staff and all the pupils. It also enables renewing of the nutrition health curriculum. Pupils use ICT in their everyday activities, thus the school staffs have to manage and update their knowledge and skills in ICT and new action environments to promote pupils' nutrition health learning today and in the future.

The main aim of this study was to know the role of digital information and communication channels in developing citizens’ understanding regarding COVID-19 with reference to situation awareness. Furthermore, the impact of gender, age, qualification and area of respondents on citizens' perception and comprehension of COVID-19 was also investigated.

This quantitative study used an online survey and received 377 usable responses. The instrument was developed with the help of literature, and it was based on two constructs (perception of the element and comprehension of the current situation) of the situational awareness (SA) model. Data were collected from Pakistani citizens through a convenient sampling technique.

It was observed that the majority of citizens used electronic media, Facebook and WhatsApp for accessing COVID-19-related information. World Health Organization website played an important role in developing citizens’ understanding. Alert messages through mobile phone and apps played role in developing citizen’s understanding regarding COVID-19 situation. They perceived that media was effective in providing social distancing techniques. Moreover, they believed that government campaigns were helpful. Findings revealed that there was no significant impact of gender, age, qualification and area on citizens' perceptions and comprehension of COVID-19 through media.

This study is helpful for authorities in decision-making regarding COVID-19 and also filled the literature gap as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no comprehensive study has been conducted regarding the SA of COVID-19.

The case for physical activity has been established through its impact on reduction in the risk of physical ill‐health such as coronary heart disease. However, there is increasing interest in its potential for a) treating and preventing mental illness and also b) the promotion of mental well‐being in the general public. The topic is now widely studied with over 30 published narrative or meta‐analytic reviews of research into the effect of exercise on constructs such as clinical or subclinical depression or anxiety, self‐esteem, affect and mood, resilience to stress, cognitive function or sleep. This paper provides a summary and appraisal of the evidence for the effect of exercise on mental health and addresses key issues that face the use of exercise as a medium for health promotion.

The new focus of brand communication in social media has driven firms to develop the effective visual content strategy. In light of narrative transportation theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of a photo’s narrative elements on self-brand connection through viewers’ transportation and emotional responses. Additionally, this study tests the role of telepresence on Instagram in this psychological mechanism.

Using between-subjects experimental design, two experimental studies test the effect of implied movement (Study 1) and diverse narrative elements such as a character, implied motion for chronology and the relevant background (Study 2).

Results demonstrate that a single narrative element, i.e. implied motion, does not induce a viewer’s transportation to the presented image. Rather, the viewer’s transportation occurs as a function of complex and diverse narrative elements, such as implied motion and the background as a context.

Findings suggest that the concept of photo narrative should be taken into consideration in a visually-oriented social media environment. To increase self-brand connection, social media communication should be designed with diverse elements to promote viewers’ active simulation and create meaning to the branded photo story.

This study expands the theory of narrative transportation by applying it to a visual form. Additionally, this research investigates the effect of social media communication on self-brand connection; the findings of this study demonstrate that a major goal of social media communication is not to sell products but to strengthen consumer-brand relationships through branded storytelling.

Critical appraisal skills are necessary to navigate the numerous contradictory and pseudo-scientific claims in the popular media. Health and science education in schools is essential for promoting these skills in students. The purpose of this paper is to explore lower secondary school science teachers’ perceptions and reported practices related to teaching critical appraisal of health claims.

Interpretive description strategy guided the study process. A purposeful sample of 25 Norwegian teachers was interviewed individually or in groups. Interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method.

One main theme, “unexploited opportunities for teaching critical appraisal”, and three sub-themes were identified: “inattentive to the relevance of critical appraisal”, “prioritise facts over critical appraisal”, “limited competency in critical appraisal”. Teachers’ descriptions of science sessions devoted to health education uncovered important opportunities for teaching critical appraisal of health claims. However, teachers did not appear to seize opportunities because they seemed inattentive to the relevance of teaching critical appraisal, they reported to prioritise teaching health content knowledge, and teachers themselves revealed limited expertise in assessing health claims critically.

The findings suggest that science teachers need support to take better advantage of the links between health and science education to enhance students’ critical appraisal skills.

This study adds depth to the understanding of issues and challenges faced by science teachers regarding critical appraisal of health claims, which is an important aspect of health education schools.

This study aims to identify key motivation factors for consumers’ social search and examine the role of flow in the process. This study assessed how content quality (i.e. visual aesthetics, textual information and timeliness) and system quality (i.e., intuitiveness and interactivity) influence flow experience. Additionally, this study tested how mental simulation and ease of task mediate this process and examined how the flow experience leads to purchase intention.

An online survey via Amazon MTurk was performed using the general consumer population in the USA. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test proposed hypotheses.

Visual aesthetics, text information, intuitiveness and interactivity were found to increase consumers’ flow experience in social search on Instagram. The timeliness of information was not a significant predictor of flow experience. Additional analyses demonstrated the mediating role of mental simulation and perceived ease of task mediate in flow experience, ultimately leading to increased purchase intention.

The concept of flow should be taken into consideration in a setting of social media marketing. To create holistic consumption experiences, social media strategy should promote seamless information search by increasing both the content (i.e. visual aesthetics and text information) and system (i.e. intuitiveness and interactivity) quality.

This study expands the theory of flow by applying it to the social search process in social media. Mental simulation and perceived ease of task are distinctively recognized as essential factors for flow experience on Instagram.

The importance of effective public messages has been widely recognized during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In particular, the role of news items and interpersonal conversations for the acceptance of public health measures has been highlighted. The authors propose a conceptual model based on the existing literature on how to measure the degree of persuasion of news narratives in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors adopted a whole population approach, where the unit of analysis was the population of the media news about the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors selected a sample to develop and test their conceptual model. The sample size was n = 248. The questionnaire was distributed online using a non-probability convenience sampling plan. The authors used a pre-post pseudo-experimental design. Respondents answered questions about their attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic. After watching a narrative news report on the same subject, they then answered questions designed to measure changes in their attitude. A structural equation model, the Sobel test and a paired samples t-test were used to test hypotheses.

The results showed that there is a significant relationship between narrative with transportation and empathy. There was also a positive and significant relationship between transportation and empathy with attitude and interpersonal talk. The relationship between transportation and self-referencing was also supported. Further, transportation and attitude mediated the relationships between narrative and interpersonal talk, self-referencing as well as empathy. A paired samples t-test revealed that attitudes were changed or reinforced before and after watching the narrative news report.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying the outcomes of narrative persuasion during public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.