Key learnings

This class has been one of the most exciting courses I have taken in the graduate program so far. From the beginning you could take what we discussed in class and see it in the real world. I find myself paying more attention to advertising and the media. Especially, public health messages. I keep asking myself "did they do their formative research?" Coming from an anthropology background I completely understand and couldn't agree more with the reasons for doing formative research. This aspect along with the idea of being a cultural spy interested me the most. I also learned a lot from our discussion on 'hard to reach' audiences. I now feel ready to tell anyone who ever poses that phrase to me, "there are no hard to reach audiences!". I have learned so much that I can apply to my work in PH. I definitely plan on keeping my notes and reader handy. The project was challenging and required more creative thinking then I have had to do in any other class. But it was worth it because we were able to apply our knowledge into a real life project. Thanks Dr.Engelberg for sharing what you know.

Final class chat.

I agree with the previous post that it was a nice way to end the class with a discussion of future careers in public health and health communication. Its always helpful to have a perspective on how to apply what we learn in ph into our careers. Our discussion on evaluations was interesting because I am taking PH 666 and in that class we had just finished discussing program evaluation. So it was helpful to discuss evaluation in terms of health communication as opposed to interventions. Finally, I must say that I am really excited to apply my health communication knowledge into practice.

the simpsons- entertainment-Education?

I had a mixed feeling about Sex and City being entertainment education, only because in the clip we saw they do seem to tackle the issue of smoking and its negative consequences. But in the rest of the series, I think, Carrie glamorizes smoking. She is a tv ad for smoking pulled straight out of glamour ads that depict women as sexy, glamorous, and alluring because they light up. That always bothered me about that show, because it really impacts the way women think. What I didn't realize until yesterdays class, was that now I have a new forum (Ent-Educ) in which to discuss some of my favorite shows such as Sex in the City and The Simpsons.

Looking towards the Web 2.0

Its really fascinating the prospect of public health moving into a tech savy field that incorporates the latest technology with creative intervention designs (i.e. interactive games). The possiblities of public health being streamed 24/7 on the web are unless. Is it possible to think that in a few years there could be a myspace/facebook type forum just for public health communication. As I write this I think about how public health communication and interventions can become mainstream through web 2.0, but my thoughts are constrained by what is out there now. Its takes real creative and cutting edge thinkers to come up with the next big thing. My references for what can come next are constrained but was it out there now and thinking nothing can top that! Like google. And my next thought is what if there was a search engine with everything and anything related to health, could that one day be the next big thing?! I think yesterdays class was really all about getting us to think outside the box and into the future of PH.

Take advertising seriously!

I never realized there are so many forms of media advocacy out there, including movies by Michael Moore, Oprah episodes, PBS shows, etc. Its intriguing how media advocacy is out there without being overty and preaching/advocating for something. Although, I could see how that tactic of preachiness can make people distance themselves from an issue. Jean Kilbourne is a perfect example of someone who understands how to engage people in a sensitive topic, a feminist topic at that, without having to be preachy. Both Kilbourne and Dr.Engelberg got me thinking about advertising and its place in PH. Kilbourne said we need to take advertising seriously. Dr.E said we have to see what "they" are doing and how we can do it too in PH. These two points complement each other because in PH we need to pay attention to advertising and realize how much of an impact it has on people both positively and negatively. That power of influence, and the creativeness behind it is a tactic we need to do more of.

Guest lecturer, PH in the news.

I too agree that Jim Mcbride's presentation was helpful in diciphering the differences between marketing, PR, and advertising. Knowing the differences between these makes the next phase of our project a lot clearer. I also found his templates handout to be very useful. Just last week I was trying to figure out how to write a news release. I enjoyed the newspaper activity. I new we were going to find a few PH stories, but I had no idea we would find so many, especially when we thought more broadly about PH. What really struck me was Dr.Engelberg's question, is the war related to PH? I never stopped to think about it in that way. But I definitely think it is a PH concern, not only for the soldiers fighting, but their families as well. After analyzing news stories this morning and their relationship to PH, I was amazed to find out that PH touches on so many areas of our lives.

Guest lecturer.

I found the guest lecturer,Dr.Linda Lloyd, to be informative, insightful, and reflective. I appreciated how forthcoming she was about her own mistakes in health communication. The whole presentation really brought our discussion of formative research to full circle, especially with poster examples. Sitting there I just kept thinking how could these mistakes have been made, it seems so obvious to test the behavior, test the messages, and understand the problem. I guess its been ingrained in me enough that FR is a crucial part of health promotion. I am really grateful for Dr.Lloyd's presentation. Its always freshing hearing about someone's experience in the real world of public health along with the lessons they have learned.
On another note, I also found our discussion on needs versus wants to be insightful. The needle exchange example made me realize how tricky it can be phrasing and posing questions to people, especially when dealing with a sensitive topic. The key is to find a way to understand people's responses beyond the "yes", "no" answer, and hopefully find a happy medium between the two. This is a lesson and example I will definitely position high on my "top of mind ladder".