THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN SUSPENDED. PLEASE CONTACT MAJOR ADVISING FOR MORE INFORMATION.
Does strategic communication interest you? Are you interested in public health and well-being?
The MA in Health Communication program is designed around a curriculum of academic and professional skills courses from strategic communication, public health, and other relevant disciplines. Core courses will connect mass communication messaging to the field of public health, and will introduce you to factors influencing health-related behavior. In addition, you will choose electives that will further your understanding of public health and the social and behavioral sciences, as they relate to strategic health messaging. The practicum and capstone courses will allow you to apply their knowledge to real-world contexts.
NOTE: Applicants to this program must either be enrolled or have completed the Journalism major/Strategic Communication track at the University of Minnesota OR have a comparable undergraduate program and professional experience reviewed and approved by the graduate studies committee (email [email protected] for information about this process).
The program design uniquely prepares you for careers in the healthcare domain that rely on the strategic use of health communication to improve people’s health. This ranges from designing health promotion materials to informing administrators, from research to policy development, from communicating with patient publics to non-patient publics, from marketing to public health settings.
For example, health communicators:
- Plan and execute communication campaigns that aim to increase awareness and understanding of healthcare issues, such as disease prevention or health policy.
- Promote public health and improve quality of life.
- Develop messages for health promotion and advocacy, carry out communication research, and evaluate the effectiveness of message strategies.
- Tailor health messaging for target audiences and draw on fields such as public health, marketing, and social and behavioral sciences to develop messaging strategies.
Learn in the Field
Upon completing your bachelor’s degree, you’ll embark on a summer-long internship in the field, working with healthcare communicators in top agencies and healthcare facilities.
Gain an In-Demand Career
In the Twin Cities, healthcare employment is estimated to represent 11 percent of total employment, with a growing demand for communications expertise. Graduates of this program will have a combination of specific message strategy and content development knowledge paired with knowledge of the healthcare field.
Learn from Dynamic Instructors
In the undergraduate degree, you will learn from a combination of academic professors and working professionals, allowing for both a theoretical and a real-world perspective. The practicum allows for experience in the field and graduate coursework provides a theoretical framework.
What will I learn in this program?
Today’s health communicators need strategic and practical skills to navigate the constantly changing health information landscape. This dual-degree program offers both theoretical and skill-building courses, as well as a real-world practicum experience.
In this program, you will learn:
- Message strategy and campaign planning
- Communication theory
- Target audience messaging
- Managing communication teams
- Strategic communication law and ethics
- Research methods and implementation
- Health communication case analysis
Careers
The field of health communication includes marketing, advertising, and public relations within a health setting, professional agency, or a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Career options include:
- Director of Health Communications
- Patient Services Specialist
- Health Account Executive
- Director of Public Relations
- Advocacy Director
- Health Marketing Consultant
- Hospital Communication Specialist
The need for health communications professionals is strong. In the Twin Cities, healthcare employment increased by almost 39 percent between 2000 and 2010, and is currently estimated to represent 11 percent of total employment. There is wide consensus that healthcare increasingly demands communication expertise and in light of the massive changes in the US healthcare system, such demand is expected to grow even more. For example, the American Medical Informatics Association projected that, in health information management alone, 50,000 new positions need to be filled in the next few years.
The Minnesota Advantage
Minnesota is well-known for its strong healthcare community and has a history of strong health advocacy and policy. The University of Minnesota is located in the heart of the Twin Cities, which has a thriving media market and is home to some of the nation’s top hospitals, corporate healthcare innovators, and award-winning health marketing firms.