Week 15

During lecture this week we focused on Evaluation. Program Evaluation is a very crucial part of any type of intervention or study. We are going to touch upon evaluations in our final project so it was helpful to have the lecturing covering this topic to assist us. However as we learn when studying evaluations, you need to know your evaluation tool prior to implementing your intervention therefore it may have been helpful to learn about evaluation tools a bit earlier but some or most of us may have already taken courses that touch on this topic in more depth so it should be okay. Years ago I worked as the Project Coordinator for The Community Service Grant Program and we created a program for at-risk (or more politically 'high-potential') youth. In the grant a significant amount of money went to an outside contractor responsible for the evaluation part. I didn't really realize what went into creating the tools to evaluate and the extensive work that needs to be done to get accurate results. I think I would have payed more attention had I learned about evaluation before experiencing first had. I also think if process evaluation is done incorrectly it can really hurt a program and funding can be cut so it is so key the evaluation represents the actual results of the intervention or program.
As for presentations... wow lots done and some more to go and then it's over, yippee!

Remember everyone... DROP THE BULL!!!

Only 2 more classes...

I wasn 't able to attend this week's class due to being out of the country but reading the blogs it appears that the class was filled with presentations and a discussion on internet related health media and entertainment education. I posted about entertainment education last week after I read the articles. As I reflect upon it once again I feel that entertainment education is a great way to break through to specific target audiences. I think younger or audiences that are not as educated can relate to education through television programs and or radio advertisements. They are able to relate to characters and this may break down stereo types and prejudice behaviors. I also feel interventions through the internet can be affective but it can more more effective if paired with one on one follow ups.

I think the class presentations have been useful to watch and I am sorry I missed this weeks presentations. See everyone on Tuesday!

Edu-tainment!

I think my favorite part of class today was the extra credit presentation: The Medici Effect. The idea of being innovative and trying new things is a great idea in theory, but from what I've done thus far in my minimal, meager, PH career, innovation isn't so highly regarded. In 666 we were told to not "reinvent the wheel" because granting agencies want to see best practices and know that their money will produce results. Sheila even acknowledged this a bit after the presentation. In terms of research and academia, it seems that the idea of innovation is more widely accepted and people are willing to take a risk with it. For everyday, "normal" purposes, though, it seems like we should stick with the "tried and true".

In the presentation, it was mentioned that by merging two disparate ideas you may create some unlikely connections which lead to innovative ideas. To do this, we need to break through barriers which are normalized associations between words and certain thoughts, etc. I wonder, though, if the author presented ways to workshop through our "barriers". If we are so imbued by culture and society, without certain prompts, we might not be able to break through barriers. Without this sort of guidance, we might stumble along the lines of innovation and it would remain theoretical rather than applicable.

The rest of the class focused on education-entertainment. It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to present today due to other demands. Anyways, I like the idea of "edu-tainment" and as was seen in the individual presentations and class readings it can play a very positive role in changing opinions and attitudes in the audience. What are the changes in actual outcomes like behavior? Does EE actually lead to behavior change? Also, it is a very expensive way to reach audiences. Large audiences can be reached and it can be underwritten by corporations (they can turn a profit as I will address in my presentation next week) but I think that can get politically murky given certain topics. If you can coordinate with an already established program like ER or Grey's, then that could be extremely beneficial and inexpensive. I think for our project, though, EE isn't the most applicable or wise.

Lastly, we discussed the Internet and its extreme pro's and con's. While there are some huge barriers to overcome, I think this is something that we MUST do because younger generations (in developed worlds) practically live off on the Internet and as they age, they will still probably frequent the Internet (plus they are comfortable and familiar with it). I think while we focus on Internet, though, we can't forget about those populations who still do not or cannot access it. As in terms of our project, we've already discussed the use of Internet and it seems that this presentation is a little late in the game for the class. I think it would have been more beneficial to have had it a little bit earlier.

Module 4

Module 4 consisted more of presentations than actual lecturing of the topics of each week. Although we did not have lectures, the articles of each week helped to provide some insight of what the module consisted of, but there is so much one can learn and understand by just reading articles. I personally learn better when its lectured and explained further in class so that I can help gain a better understanding. Aside from that, the fact that we have had so many presentations has been a great opportunity for everyone to better their presentation skills and I really think that everyone in the class has improved in their use of "umms" and are comfortable standing in front of a large group.

For this module my key insights would include, 1) how public health organizations should collaborate with big name companies as we learned in the article on Kellogg All Bran Cereal, 2) agenda setting related to public health and policy, and 3) the more presentations one does, the better you get. =)

Listening to all the group presentations and seeing everyone's ads is really exciting. Its really neat to see the ideas everyone has on how they plan on reaching their target audience. I know that everyone in the class is "shy" and don't want to speak up, including myself, but like others mentioned, it would have been nice to have people say what they like and don't like about our presentation right there and then, so we know how to improve for the next time.

Module 4 Media and Chanels

As Module 4 comes to a close the method I enjoyed learning about the most is finding methods in public health that merge and work well with successful marketing brands. One of the first times I can acknowledge recognizing this is when I attended a breast cancer funding congratulatory meeting that had a banner hung up sponsored by one of the most popular clothing lines in the United States, Charlotte Russe ®. The clothing company paired up with the race for the cure acknowledging the fundraising event and getting their name out there as a brand that is just as concerned about breast cancer. Another example is the usage of famous celebrities and political icons participating in PSAs to get public health messages across. Examples of these can be seen in the link for the teen pregnancy campaign... http://www.candiesfoundation.org/videos.html

I agree with the posted blogs about additional feedback when conducting presentations. Although it helps to have classroom feedback it would be helpful to get constructive criticisms right after the presentations.

The group projects advertisements this week were very creative. Since we are tackling the reduction of energy drinks it is a little bit difficult for us to come up with a campaign that will truly target an impact in the reduction of energy drinks... Especially since realistically speaking we would be going up against multi millon dollar companies. Overall I like the project it has helped me in understanding how populations are segmented to target specific behavior modifications.

The End of Module 4 Methods & Channels

This was a busy week of presentations on a variety of topics. I agree with everything Lynn commented in her post about expanding lecture content as well as providing more constructive feedback about the presentations so that we can work on improving specific things. I try to read and understand the article readings, but without any class lecture or discussion on them, it is hard to completely absorb and comprehend the key concepts.

Similar to Chelsea, I also found the group presentations to be insightful and interesting. I am personally impressed by the the bone marrow (cancer) group. They all seem very unified in their zeal and enthusiasm for their group topic. Sometimes I struggle to find the same excitement about energy drinks... Also, their powerpoint presentations are very "zen" in that they are concise, clear, and visually pleasing. I also was impressed by their technical savvy with the video production. I really liked the concept and felt emotionally inspired by the ad.

In terms of my "three key insights" for this module, I would say that: ppt presentations are capable of going beyond bullet points to tell a story, international public health policy is complex, and short, concise messages tend to be the best. I will use what I've learned from the student presentations to make my own powerpoints cleaner and clearer in my health promotion career. I've already starting employing these concepts in this class by using more graphs and charts to clearly summarize information and be more visually appealing. Next, I think to understand more about how public health works at the global level, I should probably start by checking out the websites of organizations such as the IMF, WTO, etc. I've already done a significant amount of perusing on the UN and WHO websites. Ultimately, I hope to work in the areas of border health or global health. Finally, the messages throughout this class that have stuck the most are those that are clear and concise. I feel like a broken record, but that really is the key. Instad of creating complex ads with a variety of different messages, I think it is important to pull out one or two of the most pertinent ones and focus on those. I will definately apply this concept to my furture work in health promotion communication.

Module 4

This week was the end of Module four and throughout the module we spent more time on class presentations and less time on actual class lecture on the week's topic. The article presentations do give insight into the class presentation but just a brief spotlight on that exact topic covered in the article. We did not discuss the reading for week 13 (which I thought we were supposed to read). The articles talked about using media entertainment to educate the general public on sensitive health topics like Aids. It mentioned different television programs and movies different countries aired. I think informing the public through television, the radio, and the Internet are great ways to inform. Another article talked about Internet interventions. I actually worked on a smoking cessation Internet intervention and like the article said, it was hard to retain the participants. The easily become bored and I think the accountability is reduced when doing an online intervention. However, there are great benefits such as less expensive and they can reach a boarder range of people.

Regarding the presentations throughout the module... there were A LOT of them. I think this class has helped me feel more comfortable presenting due to all of the presentations. I still think there are more improvements that need to be made by many (including myself) when presenting. I think it would help if we were given specific feedback on how we can personally present better. The feedback from the extra credit presentation was nice to have but it was not specific so it's hard to improve based on the feedback. I also think it would be nice to learn how to give more interesting presentations that keep the groups attention when presenting on a dry or complex issue.

I think most of the groups did a great job with their media campaign and like Chelsea stated, I'm impressed with everyone that knew how to make a video... good job. I think I need to learn some new skills.

Wow... this semester is going fast. I won't be at class next Tuesday (hopefully I can get the material from my group members).

Group Presentations

Christina's presentation on the commercialization of youth was interesting and made me think more about capitalism, commodification and how we can utilize such things in public health. But it also raised for me the ethical question if we should...this also goes to the question that came up in the drunk driving group: adding girls in bikinis to get across the message that you shouldn't drink and drive. Is it worth promoting and continuing patriarchal constructs of sexism and sexualizing women's bodies in order to make people not drink and drive? What are our personal limits? What are we willing to compromise and not in order to reach a particular audience or get a certain message across? While these questions seem tangential to the larger goals of public health and communication, I think it is important to ask yourself and know where you stand before getting into campaigns.

Christy's presentation seems like it would be helpful if she could have had the time to actually lecture on it. Otherwise it was all some of a blur to me, which is not fault of her own but just due to a mere time constraint.

Again it was fascinating to see what other groups are doing. I was very impressed on the use of video in our groups. Who knew we had so many tech savvy classmates? It made me feel a little silly that we just made print ads to be used but, on the one hand it takes less time for someone to read/see/absorb our message versus watching a lengthy video and on the other hand, we at least have those pre-made youtube videos! (Monica, those were great; thanks so much for finding them).

I am still most thoroughly impressed with the drunk driving group. They seem to have completely researched their topic and really put in a lot of thought. Maybe it is just their air of confidence or presenting styles but I feel completely unstructured and dumb compared to them! (I'm talking personally here, not in terms of our group project).

Overall it seems like our class has it together and everyone is pretty creative! I've enjoyed watching the presentations and see the commonalities and where each group differs. And let's be honest, it's been a great way to be inspired and get ideas about our own project!

Lynn, have fun on your trip!

Week 12

This week we had Asher lead our class. I've actually had a class with Asher so it was great to see someone that I went to class with now teach the class. It makes me remember why I'm in the program and want to push to complete it. He knew the material well and incorporated his interest in Public Health into the material he lectured on. He sort of lost me when he was discussing the politics of Public Health and agenda setting. I realized I need to brush up on a few things and be more informed on what is going on in our country and outside of our country. When I read the Community Stakeholders and Marketplace Advocacy: A Model of Advocacy, Agenda Building, and Industry Approval by Miller I got a better understanding of how marketplace advocacy influences Community Stakeholders. I liked the example in the article about Friends of Coal and how they impact the coal industry through campaigns.

Our fellow classmates also did a good job on their presentations. I'm pretty sure I've never had a class with so many presentations, by the end of this we should all be better guest speakers.

On another note, our group is really powering through Project 2. Way to go girls. I'm glad we got it all done with having to redo our interviews : )

This week we had a guest speaker, Asher, who came to speak to us about agenda setting. Asher is a great speaker and really knows how to engage the audience. It was very obvious that he really knew the material and was really engaged in it. I have had him as a guest speaker last semester for Global Health so I knew when I saw him that he would be engaging. As for the topic which he spoke about, it was really interesting but as Monica stated, it was very complex and as she mentioned, we probably should have had more background information or lecture on health policy so that we would really be able to understand everything he was lecturing on. I know that there is a class on health policy, but not everyone has the opportunity to be exposed to the class, so if we would have had a lecture on health policy (at least on the key points) it would allow us to be better informed. Health policy is something that I believe our school does not really focus a lot on and is one of the most important aspects in public health if we REALLY want to see changes in different health issues. I think that GSPH should consider making Health Policy one of the emphases within the school, as other school do.

On another note, I believe our group has been doing a great job on our presentation. We went from having to start over again to being able to jump from that and work together to complete project 2. We have really moved forward with the project which has been really great. Like Chelsea stated, I'm curious to see what all our interviewees thought of the ads that were created. I wonder if they all had the same thoughts of if they all thought differently. We'll see!!

Asher's Guest Lecturing...

So I really like Asher and I think he's a great guy and very intelligent. He came and co-taught in Global Health last semester with Joe and he definitely knows his stuff in terms of his dissertation and global health policy. I do not know, though, how the heck his lecture pertains to our class. He also came and spoke in 662 and the connections felt a little weak there, too.

Policy is obviously important for health reasons; many times we can make the biggest strides in a certain health area by changing laws and policy. Smoking is a perfect example. I feel, though, that what would be more important than understanding the structure of which organizations inform which institutions that inform which policies, etc, is knowing how to communicate with the groups that would make the most impact in our area, etc. Again, I really like Asher and I think his information could be relevant to what we are learning but for this lecture there was a disconnect.

I found this site (and I emailed it to everyone as well) which is interesting and might give us some ideas in terms of our project: http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/more-time-for-me/staticslideshowinstyle.aspx?cp-documentid=23809701&gt1=32052

I'm glad we were able to narrow down our choices for a low and high involvement ad and I'm excited to see what our interviewees/focus group attendees have to say about it all. I kinda want to hear what they have to say about the vomit picture! I think Tuesday will be interesting to see what everyone else has done.

One thing I do have to say, it is so unclear when a module ends that I'm never sure when I'm supposed to comment on what I've learned previously or not. And with so many student presentations I feel that half the time we don't cover information from the module so I don't know what I'm supposed to say I "learned". I'm confused. Anyone else have any suggestions?

An Agenda Setting Function...

This weeks guest speaker was quite intriguing. A public health agenda is influenced by public, legislative and media interest. Their is currently a strong need for public health professionals to advocate on issues affecting communities in the United States. Organizations like the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Amplify Your Voice, the Great American Condom Campaign address issues that affect specific populations by lobbying against or for certain actions to improve the overall health and well being of individuals. I would highly consider being exposed to how the government sets an agenda to public health issues...especially because funding is highly dependent on what the main intrest is at a specific point at time.

I enjoyed conducting the interviews for our group project this week. It was fun looking over what respondents had to say about the ad we came up with. Overall I think we choose a challenging subject to conduct an intervention on however, energy drink consumption is becoming a concerning issue in public health and because of the availability of more and more energy drinks it is important not to continue focusing on issues that concern specific populations.

More on media, marketing, and public health

This week we addressed the role of the news and media advocacy in public health. I found the Grier & Bryant article (Social Marketing in Public Health) to be a useful guide for understanding how social marketing concepts can be implemented in public health campaigns and practices. The article provides some practical resources for more information on the topic such as the Turning Point Program at http:/www.turningpointprogram.org. I was even surprised to find out that there's a certificate program for graduate trained public health professionals! I think something like that would be beneficial for any health promoter. I found the reading to be straight-forward and practical--qualities that the book I read for extra credit on social marketing seemed to lack. I appreciated the positive approach to social marketing as encouraging voluntary behavior change in contrast to education efforts (highly ineffective alone) and legislative efforts (threatening & punishing). Another useful resource cited in the article focuses on providing target audience information by accessing existing data when time/resources do not permit formative research. Specifically, Grier & Bryant mention access to unpublished reports on prevention topics from the Prevention Communication Research Database (PCRD) created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (http://www.health.gov/communication/). The PRIZM database used by the CDC is another resource discussed both in the article and in class.

I also really liked our guest speaker and the brief lecture he gave us on agenda setting. We have had him as a guest lecturer in the past and I really appreciate his enthusiastic attitude and the dynamic nature of his lectures. He does a really good job at engaging the class and getting us excited about participating in the discussion. I think the politics behind agenda setting and policy making is really interesting, yet complex. Certainly, to really get a better handle on the topic we'd need a lot more background information, but it was engaging nonetheless.

I think our group is moving right along with Project #2. I really like the messages we worked on together and I think our participant reactions will be interesting. I think what has become clear to me is that we all do a pretty good job of dividing up the work and doing our individual parts, but when we come together to discuss the project, we can provide one another with invaluable input. Definitely, that reinforces the importance of our collaboration. Yea to (anti) energy drinks.

For the first time this semester I can say that I actually really liked this week's reading. I think the article by Freimuth, Health Advertising: Prevention for Profit was interesting and made me think about all of the different types to food and beverages I consume and how they claim to benefit my health. As I was reflecting one product came to mind...

BUTTER... yep that's right, butter is what I thought about. Of course growing up my mother always reminded me not to use too much because it was fatty and bad for your artery's. Now that I'm an adult I actually understand that but what I find interesting is how many different brands of butter (or should I say fake butter) claim to actually improve your cholesterol. Can something supposedly bad for you really help? The article was great because it made me realize that the media really brings awareness of health issues but as a consumer we really need to make sure the claims are accurate.

As for the guest speaker... I think it was great to have someone come and talk to us about about how we can apply our public health skills. After listening to him talk to us it made me want to look more into finding examples of letters to the editor. On another note, there were A LOT of presentations this week (and yes, I was one of them) and I think it's hard to remember all of the different topics when there are so many but I think we all tried hard. I think it's important when giving a presentation to try and make it interesting and I hope I did just that : )

Lastly, congrats to our group for working hard and having to redue our interviews over spring break and getting them done and resegmenting by class thsi week so we are able to complete Project 2... but of course lots more work to do!

AHA!!!

This week was a nice break from the normal lecture with our guest speaker. Having Rob come to the class to speak about his work at ACS through marketing and advertising was really nice. His passion for his work was really inspiring for me personally. Its really funny because I think life is really funny in a way. I have always been interested in working in the field of Cancer since I was in high school with my dream of being an pediatric oncologist. After being a Biology major, I realized that I could never be a doctor, but Public Health was the way for me to go. The summer before I started the program I worked with an organization called PADRES Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer), which really opened my eyes to how cancer affects the family as a whole when a child is diagnosed with cancer. Just like Rob mentioned, cancer affects the whole family, especially the siblings of those with a brother or sister with cancer. Then I came to the program and am currently working on a project that is being funded by ACS. AND now, I have just been offered and accepted a Fellowship doing Cancer Research and Prevention in Puerto Rico. So it was quite nice to hear Rob talk about his work at ACS because it reaffirmed my desire to work in Cancer field. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually do some health communication related to cancer in the future...we just never know where our lives will take us. My little Aha moment of this week. =)

Besides the guest presentation, I must add that I found this weeks article was quite interesting. It funny to think that all the current ties with different food products and big name health organizations all started with Kellogg's partnership with NCI on their Kellogg All-Bran cereal campaign. As Izzybeth mentioned, I have seen the AHA adds on Cheerios and other countless adds on other foods as well. Its really smart on behalf of these companies to tie with such large food organizations to help bring their message across, which ultimately benefits both organizations.

On another note, I think we are moving forward on our project which I think is great! One step at a time group, we can do it!

Go Red a Marketing Campaign

This morning as I sat down to eat breakfast I opted for cereal. As I pored the cereal into a bowl I noticed that the logo for the American Heart Association (AHA) was on the box. Cheerios has teamed up with the AHA in an effort to increase sales and decrease cardiovascular diseases. Sounds a little to good to be true no?... Although improving a heart's health includes a collective effort on the part of the person and the foods they consume can a simple ad in a cereal box really contribute to that effort?

In an effort to answer my question I conducted research and found that cheerios teamed up with the AHA to directly target females in increasing awareness that females are also at risk for contracting diseases like heart disease. Besides increasing awareness Cheerios is also donating money for this cause. In this sense then yes they are contributing to a good cause and hence increasing awareness. This marketing strategy is very similar to the one in this weeks assigned article.

On another note I enjoyed this weeks guest speaker very much. I was unaware of the marketing strategy that by exposing individuals to multiple messages they are subconsciously being embedded. Therefore, when they are making the decision on whether or not to purchase a product, the individuals does it with out realizing they were exposed to a tactful marketing strategy. Fascinating stuff how marketing works.

Guest Speaker

It was nice to change things up this week and have a guest speak. Rob was so well spoken, eloquent and passionate about this job that it really inspired me to look into the camp he mentioned to Monica, as well as other volunteering opportunities.

I also think that Rob was a great example of what we are trying to learn in this class: communicating. In terms of presenting to a group, he told a story, he knew his material forwards and backwards so he didn't need to refer to notes or stumble through memorized slides, and he was able to just speak to us. This was way more engaging than if he had shown up a power point presentation. Of course, there are some cases when we will need power points for whatever it is that we are doing but it was a nice example of what else can be done.

Rob also shared some great experiences and knowledge about public relations and how to get your message across to a population. Like he said, word of mouth is probably one of the most powerful tools in our shed (so to say...) but this requires saturating a market. People need to know of your "thing" as an option. I don't 100% agree though with the idea that it is word of mouth that sells and not advertising, particularly when you look at certain populations. I can distinctly remember my younger brother, my peers, and even myself being 100% influenced by ads. Just food for thought...

I really liked Feion's presentation. But as stated before, why weren't these assigned readings or presentations that we held sooner? While I understand needing to read the other texts (since we are public health and what not), if we are in this class to try and improve our communication skills, maybe the practical readings about how to present/communicate should come earlier. It's a bit embarrassing to present and then be told how to do it more efficiently. I know that Sheila graciously stepped into the class so that it could be offered and is working off of what was used before so maybe next time around she'll move some of the extra credit onto required reading list (segments, of course! No one would read a whole book about presenting) or change when extra credit presentations re: presenting happens.

I'm glad we were able to move forward on our own ads. I think our re-segmenting really worked well and that we've got some great ideas for ads. With what I am struggling, though, is what channels we should use. Guess we'll discuss next week!

Media Channels in Health Promotion

The reading this week entitled Health Advertising: Prevention for Profit was good for framing the topic of using advertising and public relations to further health promotion efforts. Nowadays it seems commonplace for food companies to advertise their foods in terms of nutritional benefits. However, the article gave a historical context for the emergence of this concept through the example of the partnership between the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Kellogg Company to simultaneously disseminate the message about the health benefits of fiber while promoting Kellogg's All-Bran cereal. In the early 1980s when this type of partnership first took place, a whole can of worms was opened about the costs and benefits of public-commerical partnerships. While some were concerned about opening the door to increasing health claims for commercial products, others were impressed by the the ability of such a partnership and campaign to spread a health message (e.g. the relationship between diet and some cancers) to a large population and result in changing behaviors (e.g. increased sales of not only All-Bran, but all fiber-rich cereals). I certainly think that this can be a slippery slope from creating awareness of important health issues to disseminating bogus health claims; however, I think that in much the same way commercial marketing comes down to consumer behavior (whether or not the consumer purchased the cereal), social marketing boils down to health behavior (whether or not individuals increase fiber intake). So, in a sense, this type of partnership is a win-win situation.

In swiftly changing technological times, the different modes of communication are constantly evolving. In the age of consumerism, it seems to make sense for non-profit organizations such as the NCI to partner with a large commercial organization such as Kelloggs. And besides, given the very limited budgets of public health and other non-profit organizations, such partnerships may be the most cost-effective way to disseminate an important health message that would otherwise have very little funding. Rob, our speaker for today from the American Cancer Society, also pointed out the gradual phasing out of print materials such as newspapers and once persuasive message channels such as letters to the Editor. As these traditional modes of communication begin to wane, we have to find out the ways that the modern-day person is getting his or her information.

Finally, to be quite honest, I would like to make an insightful comment about the presentations for today, especially those related to the topic of media channels, but I really can't remember them. There were so many presentations today that they have all just morphed together in my mind, and none really sticks out to me. All I can say is that I appreciated Feoin's (sorry for spelling) more interactive and informative presentation, using a handout to illustrate her points. I found myself jotting down points and taking notes that I thought would be helpful to me in the future. Also, I thought Lynn did a really great job giving an upbeat and interesting presentation, using great visuals and examples and speaking in a loud (yet not too loud) and clear voice. Good job!

Message Strategies

This week we examined issues of framing a message(i.e., fear or humor) and branding.

At times I wish there was more time dedicated to lecturing or collectively exploring the new ideas presented rather than presentations. I know that this is a health communications course and that we need time to practice and hone our skills but sometimes focusing more on the content of the course would be appreciated. There have been weeks when the student presentations are nicely integrated with the course material so some of what we need to know is covered in that way but sometimes this doesn't happen as much.

I like that for framing the message, it was emphasized that we need to think of our audience and what's in it for them, or why is it important to them. As public health professionals (or soon to be...) it seems apparent to us why someone would want to eat more healthily, but we cannot make the assumption that our reasons would be considered "pay offs" to our public. We need to shift the focus from us to the audience. Again this sorta a "oh yea, duh!" moment but it needs to be repeated and specifically pointed out since it is so easy for us to forget this.

Speaking of framing the message, I think the examples pulled from the reading were very strong in highlighting how framing can crucially change the way a message is read or perceived. The reading was dense (did anyone really read the equations or did your eyes just kinda glaze over?) but these examples really illustrated the point the article, and the class, has made. When we create our message ideas, we'll really need to consider the idea of lose vs. gain and what will be most effective for our target populations (once we figure that one out....). At this point I would think "risks", fear and the idea of lose will be most effective but we shall see! On the same hand, I think we can combine humor and fear (i.e., excessive throwing up and diarrhea - they're probably afraid of that happening, but we can get the message across in a humours way; or Lynn's idea of the exploding heart. It's funny but hits at a fearful idea: your heart exploding (figuratively) due to too much EDs).

As for the issue of branding, I still haven't had any light bulb moments for that one though I'm still trying to think of something clever. I think we were pretty productive during group time and thank you to everyone for your responsiveness to all the emails. I can't believe we have to re-interview and re-segment but I think this time around we have a better idea of who we need to interview and what we need to know from them. Hopefully after we re-segment them, we will have a clearer picture of our two audiences so we can come prepared to class after break with message ideas. (Don't forget to send me your interviews my Wednesday afternoon.)

Have a great spring break!

Time for the end of module three and the beginning of Spring Break

Module three went by so quickly I almost didn't realize it was the end of the module. Due to the presentations taking a little more time than planned I think we really had to rush through module three. However, it wasn't a very long module so I think briefly going through it was just fine. Module three touched on Framing, Identity, Positioning, and Branding. I think Framing the Message is an important concept to know, especially for our group projects. It is very important to understand your target population and to appeal to them. Once you have interviewed your audience you can create messages that they can relate to (i.e., what will their benefit from stop behavior ____.) I think categorizing your audience into low & high involvement groups is a little more complex because if you classify them into the wrong group the message you are portraying to them may not be well delivered.

On a different note, I think branding is brilliant if the organization can create a successful image of the product. If this occurs the product will most likely always be accepted by the audience or market. If the organization uses an image that creates negative thoughts to a person then most likely it will not be a successful product or in terms of our class, it will not be a successful health related message. For example, Toyota used to be a well known and liked brand. When people saw the Toyota symbol they would automatically think 'safe and reliable vehicle.' Now, the company has a bad reputation and now the brand is not as popular. When you see a vehicle with the Toyota symbol you think... 'gosh I should stay out of their way in case the car can't stop.' So, in the end it is important to brand well but more important to have a good product to be able to brand.

I also keep thinking about humor and fear ads and I think our population will relate best to humor however may not change their behavior with the humor approach. I think it will be interesting to see their reactions to both the humor approach and the fear approach. Although, with the college age population the fear approach may not get through… during the college age many have the outlook that they are invincible and nothing will happen to them. I guess we will find out what approach works best. For presentation two it will be helpful for us to apply what we have learned in each module to our end product. We are really focusing on finding the right subjects to have a successful campaign!

Happy Spring Break!

Module 3

As we come to an end of module 3: Media, Messages, and Positioning, we have learned an array of things when it comes to message strategies. I feel as though there were many key points in this module for us to remember and use in our own projects. One of the main thing that really appealed to me was the use of humor versus fear based messages. I believe humor messages appeal to more people, as people tend to like to be happy and find humor entertaining, while I believe fear based messages cause a bigger result, as people tend to have the mentality of "I don't want that to happen to me". At the same time, it really depends on the situation and what the message is, because at the same time people have the attitude of "that won't happen to me". So as public health professionals, we will be faced with having to create messages for specific target populations, so we'd really have to understand them so that we will know what type of message will really appeal and work with them.
Another topic we covered was tailoring our message. I really liked the table what was in the PowerPoint presentation that display at what level your target population is (ie: public with low educational level) and then the other side informs you on how to properly tailor your message for them. I really think that a guide like that would be helpful to guide those creating messages so that it helps to gear them in the right direction on what to do. When creating health messages, we need to really know our target population so that we can tailor the message to them properly. You wouldn't want to create a brochure informing Latinos about Sickle Cell Anemia, and then indicate that its a big problem for African Americans. A Latino would read the message and then ignore all the important facts about sickle cell anemia, because they will immediately state, well this won't affect me. Same with if you are targeting children, the message cannot be bland and boring because it will not appeal to them. So when creating messages, we really need to know how to properly tailor them so that they reach the right people.
Lastly, it was really interesting to learn about branding and especially associations. Its funny to think that we really tend to stick with brands and remember specific things. Branding really ties together with marketing the product. If you can market the product really well people will remember the brand, just like how people immediately thinks Disneyland when you think if an amusement park. Branding also really has to be done well to convey the message you want to bring across. Creating a strong identity is what makes people remember. Branding can be a complete success or it can fail, therefore creating a brand and bringing forth its identity so that people can remember and relate to it, is a challenge that public health campaigns need to work on. Campaigns such as Truth and Verb has been successful, but something I have realize with other public health campaigns is that a constant brand is non-existent. Truly something that needs to be improved in the future to really gain the public interest.

Overall, I've enjoyed listening to the other groups progress with their presentations and I think we are progressing ourselves as well. Maybe not as fast as some people would like, but its a process, and we will do fine at the end. We definitely are learning as we go, something that I bet happens with many research projects. Well hope everyone enjoys their spring break!!!

Wrapping up Message Strategies and the End of Module 3

I think the topics for this week were very important for health promotion practice, including framing, identity building, branding, etc. I thought that the readings and some of the student presentations related to this module were insightful, however, I would have liked more lecture time on these topics. I think framing messages is really important to understand when working on or implementing health promotion campaigns. The reading last week about gain- and loss-framed messages helped to define some of the basic concepts, and I think that will help me in the second group project. I also think these concepts make a good starting point for novice health promoters such as us in order to start building messages before we try them out with our target audience. I liked the graphics and examples in the lecture, but I would have liked a bit more expansion on them. For example, why is this a good illustration of an emotional message, how has the research shown this type of message to be beneficial, and with what kinds of audiences? In what other contexts would this also be a good example? For most of the examples given in class, it is easy for most of us to decipher the obvious message, but what is the depth behind it?

In terms of our group project on energy drink consumption, I'm having a hard time determining what our behavior is and how to frame it. We want to define 'over-consumption' and find out who's over-consuming EDs and why so that we can decrease consumption. So, our target behavior is ED consumption prevention or reduction? If our target behavior is prevention then we would want to focus on gain-framed messages by emphasizing the benefits of not consuming EDs. However, if our target behavior is reduction then that would be more like a "screening" or "detecting" behavior, and in that case we would want to emphasize the costs of consuming EDs. I think this is an important distinction for our group to determine before we move on to project 2 and creating message strategies.

However, given what we know from our gatekeeper and target audience interviews, ED consumption is not considered a very risky behavior, so reducing consumption is likely not a priority for this population. But when we're thinking about whether our target audience perceives the behavior as risky, this is supposed to refer to the behavior we are promoting. So, the question would be: Does our target population perceive not consuming energy drinks as risky? Obviously, that question doesn't make sense. So then would we just want to conceptualize their perception of "riskiness" in relation to ED consumption (which is not our target behavior)?? And would that mean, then, that we would want to take a preventative approach and emphasize benefits of non-consumption? On the other hand, if we're targeting current consumers, it seems to make more sense to take a reduction approach and emphasize the costs of ED consumption. Right? I feel like I'm caught in a mental maze... but I guess these are issues we'll work through later on in our project.

Today's class presentations were quite informative. The principles of branding will be a beneficial component when target public health at a national level to reach multiple audiences. I think that even though we are competing against multi-million dollar companies it might be easier to continue partnering up with them to enhance public health concerns. For example if we are trying to increase the consumption of water, working together with a popular water bottle company might be beneficial in increasing water consumption.

I really enjoyed the presentation on the verb campaign as I learned a new perspective on how partnering up with other organization or popular media can beneficial in marketing and attempting to change behaviors in populations. I also enjoyed the presentations on how there are mind principles to branding and how easy it is for us to name an array of coffee yet many individuals in the USA do not even know what the CDC stans for or what it does. It reminds us to be innovative.

On another note, Humor can be beneficial in addressing sensitive topics such as reproductive health. The following websites uses o sense of humor yet is also serious in targeting 20 somethings by informing them about reproductive health as well as other issues that come with being in a relationship. http://sexreally.com/the-show

And now for soem side tracking. I found these cool widgets. Or so I think they are pretty cool. Since public health is agenda setting, sometimes it is difficult to keep track of everything going on, therefore i have added this widget to help is keep track of all of the public health policies molding this field:

Which reminds me don't forget to complete the census.

Presentations/Articles

The presentations on Tuesday basically took up the entire class period so we did not have time to discuss our reading or the lecture. I was impressed with all of the group's presentations. I was curious to see if groups would have approached this project differently. It appears after all of the presentations that most of the groups had similar ideas of what the end product would look like. I few groups segmented a little differently. I liked when the groups made up catchy names for their segments. I felt that the substance abuse and the cancer group's presentation was touching and like others mentioned I became very interested in becoming a potential donor for marrow.

I also enjoyed the different videos shown to go along with the presentations; I think they make the presentations more relatable and entertaining. I don't know what we did before we had smart classrooms : )

As for the readings... I also felt the article by Tversky and Kahmeman called, The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice was extremely confusing, wordy and too statistical to be able to relate to. It was not straightforward and I do not think it really helped me understand the topic for the week (maybe through lecture it would have made more sense but I'm not sure). However, the article by Rothman et all was much more understandable. I enjoyed learning about the study involving college students and their perception of prevention of the letrolisus virus and how gain and loss-framed messages influenced their behavior.
On a different note, I think it is clear that our presentations are taking longer than we have scheduled on our syllabus so I'm happy that there has been adjustments the syllabus so that we have enough time for project 2.

I want to say thank you and good job to our group for a presentation that came along nicely. It's always wonderful to work in a group that has great teamwork and thank you to the other teams for suggestions. We are going to target a more diverse population for our next project (and try and find college students drinking red bull in the library : )

Framing Health Messages

The weekly reading assignment that was easier to understand and follow this week was titled: The Systematic influence of Gain- and Loss- Framed Messages on Interest in and Use of Different Types of Behavior. An example of a marketing tactic that utilizes both loss and gain- framed messages has been the anti-tobacco campaign. This campaign has been successful in decreasing the consumption of tobacco use. http://www.thetruth.com/ This campaign has incorporated videos, billboard, television and the internet to reach an array of segmented audiences. They even have a tactful apparel store.

An example of how they use a gain frame message is by letting individuals know not only the harmful effects of tobacco smoke but also the how the tobacco company strategiezes carefully who they want to impact to increase their sales.

For framed messages to be successful research still needs to be conducted to asses perceptions of individuals. There must also be a clear understanding of who the community or that target audience is. What might work for one population might not be as successful in another. I think in this case the truth campaign is n excellent example of an integrated health frame approach utilizing various components in reaching an audience collectively.

Overall I really enjoyed the presentations. The topics were intrested and I will even look further at some of the key components that were presented such as the bone marrow transplant information that was provided.

Framing Messages & Presentations

So this week we were supposed to talk about framing messages but unfortunately we didn't get to it, but I did get to read the two articles that we had to read for the week. The first article by Tversky and Kahneman mentions the concepts of framing messages to influence decisions and focusing heavily on psychological aspects. To be completely honest I found this article to be very confusing and I was REALLY glad we didn't get a quiz this week, because I was nervous what would be asked on it, because I had a really hard time following and understanding the article. Although I found the first article confusing, I was glad that the second one was easier to follow. The article by Rothman et al. focused on the concepts of gain-framed messages versus loss-framed messages. What the article indicated was that loss-framed messages are more effective when promoting screening behaviors while gain-framed messages are more effective in prevention behaviors. They discuss how they used the two messages on two different situations, one on a fictitious disease and the other on oral health. I found the article and the study quite interesting.

As for the group presentations, I found it quite interesting to hear what every group is doing in regards to their project. I feel as though each group did a great job in presenting their information and and well on their way in moving on to the next step. As for our group, I feel as though we just need to do a bit more interviews and really target more males, rather than just females. As Sheila mentioned, we need to decide if we want to focus on the Student ED drinker or on the Alcoholic ED drinkers. My only fear in moving toward the Alcoholic ED drinkers is that we may be moving away from our "nutrition" group and more toward the "substance abuse" group. Not sure if that is okay to do or not, but I guess at the end of the day we just have to figure out which target group is the best one to work with.

P.S. After the Cancer group presentation I was quite curious to learn more about bone marrow donation because I never heard of a non-surgical way of donating marrow. What I found was that bone marrow IS surgical in donation. The method in which you donate similar to blood donation is when the patient needs peripheral blood stem cell donation. And when you register to be a donor you can't choose to be one or the other. Just wanted to clarify this for people so you know and are not confused later when you find out what really happens. This is what I found on the Be The Match website.

Q: How are bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation different?

A: Donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure done under general or regional anesthesia in a hospital. While a donor receives anesthesia, doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of the pelvic bone.

PBSC donation is a non-surgical procedure done in an outpatient clinic. PBSC donors receive daily injections of a drug called filgrastim for five days, to increase the number of blood-forming cells in the bloodstream. Then, through a process called apheresis, a donor's blood is removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood is returned to the donor through the other arm.

Q: How will I know if I'm asked to donate bone marrow or PBSC?

A: When you join the registry, you agree to donate by whichever method is needed. The patient's doctor asks for either marrow or PBSC, depending on what is best for the patient.

Framing Health Messages

Even though we didn't get to the lecture about framing messages yet, I still found the articles assigned on the topic this week to be very informative. The first article I read by Tversky and Kahneman (1981) discusses the foundational concepts of framing messages to influence decisions. Apparently these authors are the big whigs who helped to develop the framing model, and while I appreciate the historical context, this was another one of those articles I found to be well outside of my domain of understanding, given the heavy emphasis on psychological concepts and terminology. I was a tad lost; however, what I basically got out of the article was this: the way a behavioral message is conveyed may determine whether or not an individual puts that behavior into action. All the other stuff, including the examples, went somewhere over my head (...conforming to the axioms of utility model...in prospect theory...which attributes to the properties of π...and pseudocertainty induced by sequential formulation...or by the introduction of causal contingencies...what???). Yes, I'm sure Tversky and Kahneman are brilliant, but thank goodness for the second article!

Slightly more up-to-date, the Rothman et al. (1999) article put the former reading into more comprehensible terms. After reading the first few paragraphs I had an "aha" moment where all the theory gibberish finally came together. Basically, gain-framed messages emphasize the benefits of performing a behavior, loss-framed messages emphasize the costs of not performing a behavior, and the type of message given depends on two main things: (1) the individual's perceived risk of and susceptibility to the health issue and (2) whether the behavior being promoted is a detection behavior or a prevention behavior. Simple, right? Well, not totally, but certainly more understandable.

I found this article to be very beneficial as our group begins the second stage of our project. The take-home message for health promoters is that behaviors that are perceived as risky to the individual are usually detection behaviors (e.g. getting a mammogram) and should be accompanied by a loss-framed message (i.e. the negative repercussions of not getting screened for breast cancer). Conversely, behaviors that are perceived as less risky are are usually prevention behaviors (e.g. wearing sunscreen) and should be followed by a gain-framed message (i.e. the benefits of having younger-looking, cancer-free skin). In regards to our group project on over-consumption of energy drinks, first we would need to determine from a sample of our target audience whether or not ED consumption is perceived as a risky behavior (it probably is not). If it is considered risky, we may want to try out messages that emphasize the costs of not reducing or eliminating consumption of EDs. On the other hand, if ED consumption is not considered very risky, we may want to try out messages that emphasize the benefits of reducing ED consumption (or perhaps the benefits of alternatives to EDs).

Well, we will need to brainstorm this more. It kind of feels like a cognitive maze, but it may help to guide us in project #2. We may also gain some clarity after the lecture next week. Thoughts on this??

Group Presentations

Today we got a very thorough overview of what each group is doing for their project, their process, what they've done so far and where they plan to go. I thought that it was very helpful and informative to see what others are doing and it gave me some ideas for what we could do. I also appreciated the input from Sheila about the bar-party-drinkers versus study-drinkers. They're two very different segment groups and we definitely need to do regroup and figure out what the heck we are going to do! I also appreciate that sense this is a learning process, we were able to admit to our limitations and how we need to go back to the drawing board without fear of repercussions.

I found that the drinking and driving group was the most put together and had the best grasp on their material and goals. They were very strong, concise and on point with their information and the process that they have done thus far. It seems that they have really thoroughly thought through their target behavior change, their audience and how to reach them. I'm sure Feion (who is super amazing in SPSS) ran some interesting stats with their emailed survey and it will be a well-founded campaign.

I would also like to thank everyone for coming together to put together a pretty awesome presentation. I was a little wary since we ran into some major limitations but I think that it went over well and we all did a great job presenting. Thanks to everyone for all the work they did in regards to project one! Now on to project two...

Speaking of project two, I am very thankful that Sheila will push back the due date for that project seeing as how we didn't get to anything other than presentations today. While project one seemed pretty straight forward, when I skimmed over the second assignment there definitely some aspects of it that appeared to be completely new to me. I hope that with all the presentations left, etc, we're able to thoroughly go over the different aspects and what will be expected of the groups. Not to mention, we still have a lot of work to do at square one!

Extra Credit

I thought the extra credit presentations were extremely insight. It was interesting to see the board areas that each reading touched on. We had presentations on how to give presentations all the way through basic text book readings on the fundamentals of communication. One major thought I had through all of the presentations was that... it is very difficult to make a presentation interesting with dry material. There were even a few presenters that somewhat apologized for a dry presentation due to the material they were covering. What I realized when reading my book for extra credit was that you can make it interesting but it takes a bit of 'out of the box' thinking.

One example in my book was that a science professor wanted to keep his students interesting so they would pay attention during his lectures. What he did was research other professors to see how they presented their material. One way they made not so interesting material interesting is that they created a mystery. By getting the audience to question keeps them wanting the answer throughout the presentation. Another way to make a presentation interesting is to try and make the audience relate to the topic. This can be tricky but if you can find something people can relate to than you can most likely find something that will keep their attention.

I am going to try and take something from everyone's presentation and use it to make mine better (at least this is what I'm going to try to do : )

Everyone so far has done a great job!!!

Knowing your Audience Module

This module of "Knowing your target Audience" is really a key module. Although it was a shorter from Module 1, it really mentioned key topics that as Public Health Professionals should really focus on. As we learned first about segmentation and how to appropriately apply that to different groups and ages, so that you may properly reach your target group. Then the use of different tools such as PRIZM and VALS, something I never knew of before, can definitely become of great use in the future, if we decide to pursue something within the health communication field. Then last week we spoke about Health Literacy, a topic that I am personally passionate about, since I am interested in health disparities and health literacy is always one of the main topics. If we make sure that our health documents and whatever we do use for the public is easily readable and culturally appropriate, then we have definitely done our jobs right. In Health Communication, if we don't KNOW our target audience, then we can't properly reach them. In regards to questions or suggestions for the future, I think it would be interesting to have an entire lecture on how to reach different types of cultures. Maybe a type of informational class that focuses on different cultures in San Diego, Latinos, African Americans, Indians, Native Americans, and informing us on how to target material for these populations, not only by language use but what may appeal to them.

I also want to add, that I had a lot of fun last week with the Brown Bag Sessions. I really learned a lot different things from listening to the different books my classmates have read. It was really interesting to hear about the Zen in presentations, because that was something I have never heard before. Also that text messaging technique Izzybeth used is something I may consider using in the future because it really is good to use as an icebreaker. I can't wait to hear what the other students have read!!

Brown Bag

As students I think it is important that we share knowledge and continue networking with each other. I found that the presentations opened up my perception on other forms of marketing and public health promotion. The scope of technology is so broad and with the advancement of it sometimes it is hard to follow what is new. In order to advance in a public health pop culture it is important to stay in tune with innovative websites, widgets , tweeter accounts and blogs that are successful. Overall the presentations were well done. The only thing I would suggest is that we make them more interactive somehow. For example the youtube videos showed in class were clearly represented by the messages that were being conveyed. Someone mentioned that they had attended a presentation where pictures were used through out the presentation. I think that is a unique way to present and it may work for some but there is a great deal of preparation that goes into a presentation like that from presence to tone of voice.

Overall I enjoyed learning about module 2 "Getting to know your target audience" It is important to sometimes step away from our own audience perceptions and really get to know the taget population who they are and what they like in order to tailor health communication appropriately. I really like the following video because although it is an advertising commercial the logistic of the individuals changing the environment to increase physical activity is absolutely brilliant and extremely simple. They took the time to think about an innovative way to increase the usage of stairs.

Health Communications in Practice

I think that overall our class 'Brown Bag Symposium' went very well. While a little nervous in anticipation of my own presentation, I was pleasantly surprised with everyone's performance. I think it may be helpful for Sheila to post our powerpoint presentations on Blackboard for those of us who would like to have a copy.

I thought there were many things that went well with the symposium. First, all of the presentations we saw incorporated some type of interaction or media such as webpages, YouTube videos, etc. I also thought the text message exercise Izzybeth did at the beginning of her presentation was very creative. I appreciated the 'Zen' message from our other classmate as well. I definately agree with the concepts from her book encouraging presenters to be clear, concise, and simple. That way, the audience is listening and paying attention to the presenter, and not inundated with muddied and verbose slides. Of course, as Sheila mentioned in class, a bonafide presentation is distinct from a lecture, in which a professor aims to transfer a sizeable quantity of information about a topic that students will need to learn and master. I suppose a presentation should be more entertaining, in a sense; however, I still think lectures also need to be interactive!

Well, I wouldn't be fair and balanced if I didn't also mention some of the aspects of the presentations that did not go so well. I won't name names (I'm sure there were some things that I also could have improved upon!), but I will briefly mention some of the things that I noticed. First, I know that we all get nervous in front of a crowd of people (even if those people are our peers), but speech rate is a hugely important factor for presenters to keep in mind. Whereas speaking too slow makes the presentation seem interminable and tends to lull the audience to sleep, speaking too fast is exceedingly distracting and the nervousness of the presenter makes even my heart race! For that reason, I think that erring on the side of 'too slow' is much better than sprinting through the presentation. Going along with speech rate is voice level. Certainly, it is much more attention-grabbing for a presenter to project her voice than to speak softly. Also, continuing the Zen presentation theme, slides with too many words, too many bullet points, and too small font is both distracting and frustrating. Not only am I squinting to read all of the words, but I struggle to follow along with the presenter as she speaks. I happen to prefer the use of charts/graphs that concisely summarize main points into a neat, easy-to-understand format. Finally, confidence makes all the difference when a presenter strives to catch the attention and engage the participation of the audience. A presenter who speaks like a little mouse and meekly asks the audience a 'discussion question' is not going to elicit a response from them. If the audience perceives the presenter to be shy, withdrawn, or even apologizing in her tone, they are not going to feel at ease to participate. The presenter may blame the audience for being "non-participatory" when really the problem lies in the lack of confidence in the presenter's approach.

I think that as we think about promoting health and educating the public, our presentation style is something to always keep working on, whether we're in a 'Smart' classroom with a fancy powerpoint presentation or in a small dirt floor hut with merely a pointing stick and a paper handout.

Brown Bag Day!

Congrats to all of our team members that presented today. Everyone did a great job! And what I really appreciated was tying your extra credit reading to how it pertains to class. Some of the presenters merely told us what was in their book. It was assigned in this class for a reason, so I think it would have been powerful for presenters to tell us why these texts were meaningful or pertinent to our course. COMMUNICATE to me why I should care, don't make me guess. Oh, a rule to which we should all try to adhere during our project! :P

Anh's presentation on how to present was really useful, practical, and pragmatic. I've heard similar suggestions from other sources and I thought it tied in really well with the reading for that week (a nice, concise version!). I think having that reading (or sections) be assigned at the very beginning of the course would have been useful. We could all stand to learn a thing or two about successful presentations/presenting and since we all have to present, it would be a great resource for all of us as presenters and as audience members. Not everyone has the same experience with presenting and without some form of guidance we end up seeing presentations that are too long, with too much information and we end up zoning out which isn't fair to anyone involved.

Any presentation that references Harry Potter or uses it as a main example has my vote! Cody's presentation tied in well with Izzybeth's about viral sources for getting messages across, particularly with younger populations (the i-generation, I believe they are called). What really stood out to me was Cody's point that people don't want to hear about your product, but they do want you to "fix their problem". As Cody said, a poor mother doesn't want to hear that she should feed her children healthier foods, but she would be interested in learning HOW to do that within her means. I know that for my own professional goals working with disadvantaged and low SES populations, this idea is revolutionary and very inspiring.

While all the presentations were informative, the other presentation I really appreciated was Lindsay's. I think it is very important to examine the uses and applications of dominant and/or participatory paradigms and globalization. Lindsay stated that many international aided programs still utilize more of a dominant paradigm (which is ultimately top-down programming) rather than grassroots programs. While this has proven successful in international health campaigns, we can reach more people and have more people be responsive to grassroots campaigns especially given the xenophobia, mistrust and dissatisfaction with "outsiders", Americans or industrialized nations. Granted this is on a larger international scale but I do think it is just as applicable to more local campaigns (an idea that we've beaten to death).

What a day! So many presentations, so much information....but all so useful in their own way.

Health Literacy: A Crucial Issue

This image displays the exact thoughts of many people in the United States, not only recent immigrants, but those who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This face is the face many have when it comes to going to the doctor or even hearing information on how to take care of their own health. Like the copy states "Just WHAT did the doctor order?", many really don't understand what they have to do to take care of themselves.

Health Literacy is something that us as Public Health professionals really need to focus on. We sometimes forget that not everyone understands our jargon and that we really need to make sure that the public understands the message we are trying to get across. We need to make sure that we understand their background and learn the best way to make sure the message is understood and implemented. With 90 million American Adults with limited reading and math skills, our goal is to make sure this population are able to understand their medication and what the doctor tells them so they don't go home and treat themselves incorrectly. As we work to make health materials to send out to the public, we need to make sure we use such tools as SMOG to make sure we are not writing way above our public's reading level. Making sure that we tailor all our materials is key, if not we'll end up with people like the gentleman in the image, confused and lost. Therefore, I challenge everyone that once you dive into the work force and begin to create health materials remember the 90 million individuals and make sure that you tailor and reach your target audience, so that we can bring an end to health literacy.

Communicate according to your audience

After reading our class material and listening to the lecture I was reminded of PH 662 and creating a curriculum. We had to make sure that our material was appropriate for the age group we were targeting. We also had to use the SMOG approach. I think it is so helpful to use the Word program. I think applying SMOG can be a bit confusing; however by running the Word program it is really simple to find out what grade level your writing is appropriate for (and it takes A LOT less time to use the Word program vs. SMOG).

I think writing at the level of your audience is something that we often forget about as graduate students and in the real world. We often write to sound intelligent and neglect that our audience may not comprehend what we are trying to express. If I'm trying to create material that targets parents in order to get them to stop smoking inside their home, then I need to find out what level of education these parents have. If I'm targeting parents that hold a college degree I may use more statistics and reference research studies. If I am targeting parents with a low level of education that my have not graduated high school I might want to use a different approach. I may want to use pictures to display my message. For example, I may want to use a picture of a child with an illness due to second hand smoke. I think it is very crucial for the target audience to comprehend the message otherwise all effort to get the parent to change is most likely useless.

I also think word of mouth communication is extremely valuable. When Sheila was talking about doctor referrals and how in Michigan people ask their friends and family who they see and that is how they find their doctor. Well, I just want to let Sheila know that people in San Diego do the same thing. A few years ago one of my friends needed a new physician because her insurance changed and she asked me about my physician. I was more than happy to refer her and praise my physician. It's now been a few years and we still see the same physician.

Since we live in San Diego and we are considered a border town I think it is always important to remember that our target audience might include people that do not speak or understand English. When creating materials for our interventions we should try and make sure the verbiage we us can be translated into other languages. This enables us to reach a much broader population.