Popular Culture And Health Communication Across The Lifespan

Just as health concerns will inevitably change over people’s lifespans, so too will their attention and sensitivity to health topics that are covered in popular culture. In this vein, a guiding assumption of the present chapter is that health communication practitioners (e.g., writers/producers, campaign directors) who are correspondingly sensitive to the developmental tasks and milestones of the age groups they are targeting will have better success at connecting with audiences in ways that will lead to their intended outcomes. Given our focus on the developmental tasks of people as they move through the lifespan, Erik Erikson’s (1959, 1968) theory of psychosocial development guides our perspective. Erikson contended that an individual’s personality develops through eight stages of the lifespan, and living a healthy, well-adjusted life depends on the successful completion of the core developmental task of each stage. Thus, in this chapter, we strive to explore the health messaging that connects with these developmental tasks throughout the lifespan.