Oral

Media advocacy refers to the strategic use of mass media to support community organizing to advance a social or policy initiative and has been defined by the IOM as one of the key areas of expertise for public health professionals in the 21st century. While media advocacy efforts may take many forms, often they are complemented by grassroots attention-getting events and/or other communication approaches and strategies. The strategic use of the mass media (both new and traditional) has proven to be successful in educating and influencing policy makers on several disease areas, and helped advance social change as well as the adoption of new health policies. This session focuses on the theory and practice of media advocacy and includes presentations on several US and international models, case studies, and post-intervention evaluations.

Session Objectives: At the end of the session, the participant will be able to: (1) Identify key principles and theoretical approaches of media advocacy; (2) Discuss lessons learned from the use of media advocacy strategies in specific disease areas; (3) Identify three ways to gain access to the media.

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