Using health communication campaigns to change health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: An example of Uganda and Turkey survey

In recent years, the use of media has increased in order to convey health-related information to wider masses, to create health-related behavior change and to inform people about their health. The media has been frequently used in campaigns organized during epidemics, as well as on topics such as tobacco use, prevention of heart diseases, alcohol and drug use, cancer screening and prevention, sexual behavior and accidents. For example, during the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2009 and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 2012, the media provided tools for informing the public about the outbreak, contact tracing, disease prevention, and isolation of exposed individuals. The media has been used to cover the rapid spread of infectious diseases and self-control. This study aims to comparatively examine the use of media and health communication campaigns of Uganda and Turkey Ministries of Health regarding the epidemic during the Covid-19 epidemic, which started at the end of 2019 and spread all over the world in a short time. The Uganda Ministry of Health Tonsemberera Campaign page https://www.health.go.ug/covid/project/tonsembelela-logos/with the media contents (video film, radio spot, billboard, etc.) prepared by the Covid-19 Information Platform and those prepared by the Ministry of Health of Turkey and published at https://covid19.saglik.gov.tr/ website will be examined with qualitative content analysis and semiotic analysis. In addition, an online survey will be conducted in Uganda and Turkey in order to reveal the effect of media use by relevant public institutions and health communication campaigns on people's health behaviors during the Covid-19 epidemic process.