Oral

Entertainment media has been shown to be associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, especially among youth. Many children exceed the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for television viewing. Television programs popular among adolescents contain large amounts of sexual content, with few messages about risk or responsibility. Television, therefore, provides an opportunity to initiate discussion about such issues as safer sex and aggressive behavior among youth. Researchers have also conducted outreach to TV writers to educate them about health topics for storylines, and to provide cancer Web links and 800-numbers for use when cancer storylines air. Product placement is a common practice in entertainment programming, issue placement, however, is less commonly known by the public. Issue placement, or entertainment-education, in the entertainment media has gained increasing attention from health communication practitioners and academic scholars. Issue placement refers to the inclusion of particular storylines, prosocial issues or products (e.g. condoms, eating healthily, correct medical diagnosis and treatment). Another health promotion strategy using multimedia often conducted during social marketing campaigns to communicate with the public about health matters is public service announcements (PSAs). However, there is no comprehensive study to date that examines the overall PSA landscape presented to the public, including the volume of PSAs, which topics are emphasized, and when they are aired. By understanding the PSA landscape, social marketers will be better able to plan their campaigns. Policy makers, too, will have a better sense of which priority areas in public health are underrepresented nationally by PSAs.

Session Objectives: At the end of the session, the participant will be able to: (1) Describe an entertainment education approach that encourages viewers of TV shows to seek more information on cancer; (2) Understand how health issues and products become embedded in entertainment programming; (3) Discuss the influence of media on children and young adults.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing