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 Specifically, Grier & Bryant mention access to unpublished reports on prevention topics from the Prevention Communication Research Database (PCRD) created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services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.