Summits - SBCC and C4D
Gathering in person to advance informed and engaged societies
Summits - SBCC and C4D

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Mass-media-generated interpersonal communication as sources of information about family planning.

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T. W, Poppe P. R., & Merritt, A. P. (1996). Mass-media-generated interpersonal
communication as sources of information about family planning. Journal of Health Communication, 1(3), 247-266.



Abstract
Journal of Health Communication. 1(3): 247-65.

This study of the interdependence of interpersonal and mass communication focused on the influence of the audience's stage of behavior change on their choice of information sources. It is currently understood that the mass media are effective at information dissemination which increases knowledge about innovations, and interpersonal communication facilitates behavior change allowing adoption of the innovations. The first hypothesis of the study was that as individuals progress in the adoption-of-behavior process (knowledge, approval, intention, practice, and advocacy), their media message recall would improve (this also implies that messages aimed at new users of family planning (FP), for example, will fail to reach their target audience). The second hypothesis was that individuals in the approval and intention stages would have the highest level of mass-media-generated communicated with their family and friends and those in the practice stage (of FP) would have the highest level of mass-media-generated communication with medical personnel. The third hypothesis was that the stage of behavior adoption would be negatively associated with information-seeking and positively associated with information-giving. These hypotheses were tested in Peru where a FP communication intervention took place from 1992-94 and was evaluated with urban probability household survey questionnaires. Data were analyzed to determine 1) the network role of individuals with whom the respondents discussed the mass media messages about FP; 2) the relationship of age and education to stage of FP adoption; and 3) the average number of mass media messages recalled, family and friends talked with, and medical personnel consulted by stage of behavior change. It was found that, contrary to theory, individuals in the later stages (practice and advocacy) were more likely to seek information from others than individuals in the earlier stages. As theorized, individuals who had used FP for more than a year were more likely to recall giving information to others. The data supported the first, but not the second, hypothesis. The third hypothesis was unsupported as it applied to information-seeking and supported as it applied to information-giving.