Islamic Persuasive Communication: Concepts, Characteristics, and Impacts of Media Health Programs

Although scenarios in global health are witnessing benefits from new medicines and technologies, nonetheless there are unprecedented reversals in health. As a result, the World Health Organization has encouraged more innovative approaches in promoting health risk reduction and the reconsideration of risky lifestyle behaviour. The concept of cultural sensitivity has emerged as a key topic of interest to health communication. The growing awareness about culture argues both for a shift in the philosophical and theoretical approaches, and in the methods, underpinning health communication. On the other hand, a lack of understanding of Muslims and their cultural and religious traditions contributes to potential conflicts in health promotion. In addition, the emergent and increasing presence of faith-based media and communication institutions marks a significant and growing interest in understanding culturally sensitive health promotion such as Islamic communication. However, studies those focus on faith-based health communication, and in particular on Islamic perspectives or practices, are rare. This study explores the Islamic communication conception, examines its characteristics and investigates its impact on the health behaviour of Muslims in Malaysia. The thesis integrates health communication theories, media framing theory and the Islamic communication paradigm to explain and examine how Islamic-based health promotion is emerging and how it impacts on health behaviour perception and practices. It argues that a culturally sensitive approach is required in order to understand the particularities of the impact of this contemporary health promotion practice. Although the research literature shows a number of studies that examine the relationship between religion and health behaviour, this particular study differs from previous studies because it focuses specifically on how culturally sensitive elements, such as a faith-based communication strategy, impact on health behaviour. In addition, this study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the association between faith-based (Islamic) communication and its impact on health behaviour through data gathered from a health policy interest group, implementers’ group and target group. This is carried out by engaging multiple qualitative research approaches. Firstly, in-depth interviews were conducted to evaluate the Islamic communication conceptions. Secondly, the content analysis was employed to examine the Islamic characteristics by analysing the insight of thirteen health promotion programs broadcasted by an Islamic radio station. Finally, the effects of Islamic-based health promotion on the target groups were evaluated by performing eight series of focus group studies. The results from all studies signify that Tawhid (the belief in Oneness of God), Quran, sunnah (prophetic traditions), amar makruf nahy munkar (commanding to the right and prohibiting from the wrong) and dakwah (preaching and propagation) represent Islamic communication conceptions. Findings indicate that the impact of Islamic health promotion on the target group’s perception and acceptance was perceived to be positive. However, in practice, one of the crucial elements in Islam, the sunnah conception, was not identified in the evaluation of the Islamic radio station’s health programs. Paradoxically, the usage of Islamic communication in the Islamic radio was quite low compared with conventional health communication. However, data from the research suggested that this scenario may be due to some challenges such as the level of Islamic understanding and interpretation, political climate, social situation and political-economy of the media structure. The insights of this research may contribute to the further development of health promotion strategies for Muslims in Islamic nations as well as Muslim communities in non-Islamic nations through an interculturalisation process