Читать книгу Digital Health Communications - Группа авторов - Страница 10

As we finalize this collective work, we cannot disregard the health context that is highlighted by the very content of the book. We are confined for public health reasons. Each of us on one side of the Atlantic, like half of the world’s population on this day in April 2020, must face the health, social and emotional consequences of the pandemic caused by Covid-19.

We feel the fear of the dangers of disease and the necessary protection of ourselves and our people. We are subjected to a flood of information on the spread of the epidemic in traditional media, as well as on social media, that worries us and sometimes freezes us in fear. We keep in touch with our loved ones via digital tools hardly used by most until now, but which immediately become indispensable to maintain family, friendly and professional links, and at the same time, we are obliged to ensure pedagogical continuity for our students from a distance via digital tools. As actors of these new knowledge mediations, we do so twice over because we must also support our children as they attend their distance courses and evaluations that continue as best as possible during this period.

As you will have understood by reading these lines, the unprecedented health crisis we are experiencing today makes the general issue of the work you are holding in your hands (or reading on a screen) even more topical: how does digital technology contribute to changes in health information and communication? In other words, what are the contemporary challenges of digital communication in health?