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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Annette Gardner, PhD, MPH¹, Sara Geierstanger, MPH¹, Claire Brindis, DrPH², and Nell Marshall, BA¹. (1) Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94118, (2) Bixby Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94118, (415) 476-5255, claire.brindis@ucsf.edu

In 2001, The California Endowment awarded more than $9 million to 19 clinic consortia to strengthen their capacity to engage in policy advocacy activities that mobilize resources to support a policy issue or create a shift in public opinion. One of our research objectives was to assess the effectiveness of media advocacy in increasing public and policymaker awareness of clinic policy issues. The UCSF Team collected longitudinal data from grantees on cross-site indicators, such as type, number and effectiveness of media advocacy activities. Second, we conducted interviews and focus groups with the targets of grant-funded activities, including representatives from the media and policymakers. We also analyzed 26 articles and editorials published in 2004, noting their placement, where the articles were published and topics covered. Lastly, we analyzed annual media contact data from three grantees. Our findings indicate media advocacy has served some grantees well, establishing them as an ongoing and reliable source for information. These relationships are evolving into permanent relationships that assure consortia ready access to newspaper coverage. The findings from the Policy Advocacy Worksheet on the effectiveness of media advocacy is mixed. This is due to a number of factors, such as the difficulty in assessing impact, a difficult media market, and existing clinic relationships with the media that may preclude the need for a strong relationship with media. We discuss these and other findings and approaches for assessing media advocacy, including use of process outcomes that are easier to assess than longer term outcomes.

Learning Objectives: Participants will learn the following

• Development of interim or process indicators for assessing media advocacy outcomes, e.g., media contacts and relationships with media representatives
• Evaluation tools - what works and what does not, e.g., article content analysis, interviews.
• Findings from three years of assessing media advocacy undertaken by 18 clinic consortia

Keywords: Media Advocacy, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation