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!