Communication Research

The Harvard Opinion Research Program (HORP) has teamed up with the de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC) to conduct robust research aimed at helping public health communicators across the country. Check out their new 2026 Action Guide for governmental public health communicators below.

Overcoming Challenges & Leveraging Strengths: An Action Guide for Communicators at Public Health Agencies

Authored by: SteelFisher GK, Findling MG, Prus EC, Harvard Opinion Research Program & Public Health Communications Collaborative

February 2026
This Action Guide is for governmental public health communicators who want to strengthen the strategy and operations behind their communications departments. Whether you’re a department of one or 25, this guide offers practical tools to help you identify opportunities, address challenges, and build a stronger foundation for impactful public health communications.

This Action Guide is based on a rigorous, national qualitative study among public health agency communications staff. Drawing on varied experiences from communicators in agencies at all levels – from state to city to regional to local, with highly variable governance, staffing, and budgets – the study was able to identify key commonalities: 14 key factors that communicators believe have important influence on their effectiveness.

What’s Inside:

CHAPTER 1: The Political Environment

CHAPTER 2: Morale

CHAPTER 3: Organizational Position

CHAPTER 4: Bureaucracy

CHAPTER 5: Funding Setup

CHAPTER 6: Staffing Structure

CHAPTER 7: Community Connections

CHAPTER 8: Outside Communications Support

CHAPTER 9: Relationships with Leadership

CHAPTER 10: Relationships with Programs

CHAPTER 11: Relationships Among Comms Staff

CHAPTER 12: Relationships with the Media

CHAPTER 13: Strategic Authority

CHAPTER 14: Technological Sophistication