The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Session: The Media and Public Health: How to Communicate Effectively and with Confidence
1007.0: Saturday, November 9, 2002: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Oral
The Media and Public Health: How to Communicate Effectively and with Confidence
Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview:
Communicating effectively through the mass media is an essential skill for public health professionals who hope to influence the public's behavior or public policy support. Since most health issues are complex and many medical and scientific issues contain uncertainties, a great deal of skill and discipline is required to communicate them within the constraints of time and space that mass media place upon spokespeople. This institute is designed to help public health professionals understand how to deal effectively with the mass media by understanding the challenge from the media's perspective and by learning a number of communications techniques and strategies that are effective in getting complex messages through to the public. This institute will help public health professionals communicate through the media more effectively by learning a number of techniques and strategies.
Learning Objectives: Upon completion of the institute participants will be able to: 1. Recognize the essential components of an effective media presentation; 2. Understand and apply techniques of proper message preparation and communications strategy development; 3. Apply techniques for effectively answering questions dealing with scientific uncertainties when posed by members of the media; 4. Understand and articulate the constraints of time, space and competition that drive modern news coverage and demand a skilled and disciplined approach by public health professionals interested in using the mass media to reach the public; 6. Recognize the essentiality of media skills as a core public policy competency.
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organizer(s):Anna Dillingham
1:30 PMIntroduction
Shelley Hearne, DrPH, MPH
1:40 PMPre-assessment (Burke)
2:20 PMMedia and Public Health Presentation I
John Burke, JD
3:05 PMBreakout Session
3:35 PMBreak
3:45 PMEffectively Communicating complex health issues: Presentation II
John Burke, JD, Marie Burke
4:15 PMBreakout Session
4:45 PMWrap-up Session
4:55 PMPost Assessment
Organized by:APHA-Continuing Education Institutes
CE Credits:CME, Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work

The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA