Hi everyone,
I am trying to pull together some information on the effectiveness of
displays (table top, etc.) for promoting health. I suspect that there may
be more on making a display effective (where does the eye go first, where
does it travel, what features make a display most effective, etc.) than
whether they are generally effective. Has anyone done any searching for
information in this area?
Thanks in advance.
Jodi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jodi Thesenvitz
Resource Consultant
The Health Communication Unit
100 College Street, Room 213
The Banting Institute, University of Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario
M5G 1L5
Phone: (416) 978-1188 or (519) 896-0051
Fax: (416) 971-2443
Email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of d.raphael
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 10:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: inequalities in Canada (fwd)
Forwarded Message:
From: Crawford Kilian <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 17:21:13 -0700
Subject: Re: inequalities in Canada
To: Population Health Forum <[log in to unmask]>
I've read Dennis Raphael's paper, "Health inequalities in
Canada," with
great interest. It's an effective survey of a large field, and
seems to me
to reflect the consensus of public-health specialists both
here in Canada
and in other industrial nations like the US and Britain.
The question Dennis raises is how to convey that consensus to
the
nonspecialists -- especially to the general public through the
media. As a
part-time journalist, perhaps I can offer some suggestions.
(Quick background: From 1982 to 1994 I wrote a weekly column,
usually on
education, for the Vancouver Province newspaper. Since then
much of my
work has been for Vancouver's Georgia Straight, a weekly with
a
well-educated urban readership. I've also written for other
Canadian
papers and magazines-- while teaching full-time at Capilano
College in
North Vancouver.)
First, it's going to be up to the public-health professionals
to push this
issue aggressively to the media. I stumbled across it last
year thanks to
a short news item, tracked down some sources through the Web,
and began my
education in this remarkable field. Most reporters don't have
the leisure
to pick and choose their subjects, or to research them. They
need tips
just as cops need stool pigeons.
Moreover, most reporters expect to be lied to, and their own
background in
technical fields (like medicine) isn't strong. So they
approach potential
stories with both skepticism and credulity. If they don't know
you, they
assume you're a charlatan, though they'll be glad to use your
material if
they can take an angle like "Cancer could be beaten in 6
months" or
"Immortality now possible." If not, they'll treat you as a
target and
bombard you with questions you probably can't answer because
they're not
relevant. Trying to answer honestly means answering
technically, which
will lose them very quickly.
If they do know you, however, they treat you as a source, not
a target.
They trust you to give them usable material with an angle that
they and
their readers will understand. How do you get to be a source?
Easy-- get
to know the media *before* you have a story for them.
So you might call whoever covers medical stories for your
local paper and
invite the person to lunch, or for a tour of the lab, or to
sit in on a
bull session with you and your colleagues. The intent is to
become
personally acquainted, to provide background that will help
the reporter
when a story does come along. (People in the news media hate
surprises;
they want to be there with cameras rolling and pencils
scribbling when the
event happens--so you can tip them off to a pending event,
bombshell
report, whatever.)
You'll also learn something about the media: when their
deadlines are, how
their editors are treating medical stories these days, how
readers are
responding to such coverage. This can be critical.
Over a sandwich and a beer, you can explain some of the issues
around
income inequality and health, simply and clearly, with vivid
personal
examples and some eye-popping stats (but not too many stats).
You can
explain how decades of research confirm the key points, and
how
politicians know damn well what's going on but don't feel any
pressure to
address the issue because the public still hasn't grasped the
implications. You can also supply a heads-up about some
forthcoming report
or conference that's going to reveal astounding new facts
about the
problem.
After your meeting, you have a contact in the media, and your
contact has
a source. Expect to repeat the process, because reporters get
moved around
a lot. Expect to do it for nonspecialists as well, especially
for news
editors, and to pay attention to TV, radio and Web journalists
as well as
print reporters. Ideally, you should have a whole roster of
contacts, both
locally and nationally (and internationally). When the report
comes out or
the conference opens, they should all be fully aware of it.
(You can make
life easier for them by providing a media kit: news releases,
fact sheets,
texts of important documents, lists of people to call.)
You don't limit these lunches just to the media. Get hold of
people in the
local health ministry, the deputy ministers, maybe the
minister. Invite
your local MP or provincial legislator to drop by and see
what's cooking.
By all means cultivate the opposition health critic (even if
the
opposition still believes illness is caused by demonic
possession). Be
generous with information that the government will have
trouble dealing
with in question period.
And of course you're talking to other agencies and
organizations: local
health boards, school districts, municipal governments, think
tanks.
Especially since Walkerton, they've been sensitized to the
whole issue of
public health; this is a great chance to help them make sense
of what's
going on. Give them access to a Website full of good links and
clear,
understandable reports. Offer to give them a 20-minute
presentation,
supplemented with a media kit.
Expect some resistance, maybe a lot of resistance. Doesn't
matter -- you
don't have to convert everyone, just enough people to spread
the word and
help the idea sink in. You have to keep the language clear and
simple;
remember that Wolfgang Pauli, the great physicist, once said
that anyone
who couldn't explain quantum mechanics to an 8-year-old didn't
really
understand it himself.
Finally, expect to keep hammering away at the issue for a
long, long time.
I'd guess the media and public opinion are at least 2 to 4
years from
really grasping this issue -- and that's only if the experts
don't quit.
Have fun!
Crawford Kilian
Capilano College
North Vancouver BC
[log in to unmask]
http://www.capcollege.bc.ca/magic/cmns/crofpers.html
Fiction Writer's Page:
http://www.capcollege.bc.ca/magic/cmns/fwp.html
Visit our Web Sites for information and reports from all of
our Quality of Life Projects!
http://www.utoronto.ca/qol
http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors
**************************************************************
****
In the early hours I read in the paper of epoch-making
projects
On the part of pope and sovereigns, bankers and oil barons.
With my other eye I watch
The pot with the water for my tea
The way it clouds and starts to bubble and clears again
And overflowing the pot quenches the fire.
-- Bertolt Brecht
**************************************************************
****
Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 308
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice: (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
|
