Thoughts about the end of class....

Health communication is EVERYWHERE. This class really brought that into light. Before this class, I was always very bored when the classic health commercials came on TV (i.e. the cholesterol lowering or diet commercials), now I pay attention to not only these messages but also the not so obvious health messages. It may annoy my fellow TV watchers because now I am constantly yelling out “Health Message!!!!” during TV programs. It is like I am more tuned into what I am being exposed to and I don’t see that going away anytime soon. Working on the Family PACT project made all that we have learned in class more concrete. It gave me a chance to apply the tools we learned and I think by doing that I will be less likely to forget them. Unlike writing a paper this project allowed us to have the hands on experience that is health communication. It was (is) a lot of work but I think that every moment has been worth it. I have learned so much not only from the project but from my wonderful group mates. Although group work is hard at times, working in this group has really showed me how important it is to be around other people to get the creative juices flowing and that is so necessary if our health messages want to have even the slightest chance in the huge world of communication. ;

Nearing its end

So the semester is coming to an end....I really plan on reflecting on all I have learned in this class on my blog so I have a way to refresh my memory after the class is over. I simply don't have time to it right now.

Here is a You Tube clip I found when working on our final project. I think it is very well done...

Health Games

So, last week we talked about health games and the strength of them when dealing with health interventions. Speaking from personal experience I know they worked. In Peace Corps, we were responsible for creating a health fair. I was teamed up with another volunteer and we had to do the booth on Malaria. We had arragned to get about 100 mosquito nets donated so we wanted to give those out but we wanted the people attending the fair to work to get them. So, we had them play a version of the cake walk to get the nets. We had music playing and when we would stop it the person standing on the picture of the mosquito would answer a quetion (of course with assistance they would always get it right) and then we would give the net. It was hillarious because the Timorese had never seen something like it before and they just loved it. In addition, we had set up a coloring table underneath a net for kids to color educational pictures. My fellow volunteers all used games at their booths also and the entire event was a total sucess. Just that experience with games and health really showed me how powerful they can be.
I was just searching for games on the internet and there are a ton of health related webbased games. There really is something for everyone and I just need to get more internet savy to make sure I am not missing out anything good!

Idol Gives Back, do you

I was flipping through the channels last night and just happened to stop on American Idol and it was there special, Idol Gives Back show. Every single one of the stories they told asking for donations and for ‘us’ to make a change were health related. Yes, I think American Idol is a joke but talk about a good channel for getting the word out there about health disparities in this world. They had a ton of well recognized celebrities talking about and visiting malaria stricken villages and AIDS orphans in Africa and poor parts in New York were nobody has health insurance. They even had the Prime Minister of England on donating 20 million mosquito nets worth $200 million (I wonder if the nets will be used properly or if they will be used as fishing nets instead? I am a little hesitant to just give out nets because I have seen how just giving them may not be the best solution). I see this show as a form of media advocacy because although they were soliciting donations they were also raising awareness amongst people who may not otherwise pay attention to these health issues. Is this wrong-reason health promotion? I don’t think so, I see it as one of the only ways to teach millions of people who would not otherwise pay attention about health issues that are affecting our world. Yes, I do remain skeptical about where the money actually goes and because of that I did not donate but none the less I feel Idol Gives Back was a great way to get important health messages out to the masses.

PETA

Ah, it has been a while since I have posted. I have been swamped with midterms and the project for this class. Which I must say is coming along quite well. It helps that i have an amazing group and a topic that I am very interested in.
So in class this past week we took a look through the newspaper and counted the number of articles/ads broadly related to health. It was pretty remarkable at the quantity that we cam up with. So there isn't a lack of information out there, it is just the quality of the information that I am concerned about and getting people attention.

One radio spot that got my attention was the vice president of PETA on NPR. He was very well spoken and really drove home a lot of what we are learning in this class. One stood out the most to me was when caller criticized PETA for using Pamela Anderson as a spokesperson. She said she has been Vegan for 6 years and vegetarian for 20 and lost a little respect for PETA when she saw the ad. The vice-president responded politely by saying that she is not their target audience because she already shares the values of PETA. He then continued by describing their audience as being the Frat boys that don't care at all about animal welfare. That brought up a very good point, how far can you go to alienate someone who already believes to capture the attention of those who do not? He also talked about why they use celebrities (naked celebrities at that). His answer was that people don't want to hear about animal cruelty but their interested is peaked when you have a naked person on TV or in an ad. He said they can't even get a spot on the news when only talking about animals and that their only hope to get airtime is to have risky/provocative/sometimes offensive ads. This brings back the topic of wrong reason health-promotion. PETA often uses the wrong reason because people won't pay attention otherwise. I do agree that some of PETAs ads are hard to watch/look at but that is their point. They definitly go for shock value and fear appeal. Here is the link with the MP3. If you have 20 minutes I would listen to it, it is worth it and brings up some very important and intersting points. http://www.kpbs.org/radio/these_days;id=11222

Is Shrek Obese?!?!

How far do you go to get people to pay attention? Where to you draw the line when using sex, looks, and money to get someone to change a bad health behavior to a good health behavior? It is so hard to say. There are so many ads out there and health messages aren’t necessarily the funniest so I don’t blame the creators for getting creative! However, I don’t think the health messages should contradict what they are advertising.


I thought it was a little odd that Shreck was promoting childhood obesity prevention (isn't he kind of tubby?!?!)
It won't let me put the video directly in so just go to the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-zEDbl04NY

Then there was a link for this video…



and this video


Talk about contradictory!

Airborne!!!!

So time has been short this week because so my blog got put on the back burner. It is mid term time again, and I have just come to the conclusion that I am not very good at juggling everything that needs to be done. Oh well, at least this semester my tests are spread apart and not all in one week like last semester. So because I have been spread so thin I have been drinking my fare share of Airborne. I figure it is a good way to get my vitamins and get hydrated. Well, I was talking to my mom and she informed me that there was a class action lawsuit against Airborne because before November 2007 they had falsely advertised that Airborne can ‘cure or prevent the common cold.’ I guess people took that literally and got upset that a bunch of vitamins can’t really do that so they sued and a bunch of lawyers are reaping the benefits. And anyone else can benefit from it to because you can claim that you bought up to six bottle of Airborne with out showing proof and get reimbursed up to 10.50 per bottle! So that is $63 for nothing, now will your morals let you do it? Check out the website if you want more information. http://www.airbornehealthsettlement.com/

I guess they didn't do their formative research and test how people interpreted that wording well enough before they put the product on the market, ooppss....

Negative Segmentation in the Food Court

So we were sitting there in East Commons Food Court on a high after completing our first successful focus group for our Family PACT project when a man came up with one of those petition clipboards. I NEVER stop and sign them but I guess I was feeling safer because I was in a group and/or I was feeling like I pay it forward because 5 very nice people had just spoke to me about their sexual health practices. So I took the board and then he quickly handed 3 more out to the rest of my group mates. That was the beginning of the end. The man sat down and his friend came over and sat on the other end of the table. I read the first petition, it was about allowing victims to know the status of their perpetrators (or at least I think that was what it was). After I read and signed that one, the man sitting next to me said, oh there are 7 total, just keep flipping and signing. So I flipped to the next one, I think it was about making sentences harder for people who commit violent acts, so I signed it. The next, was rezoning San Diego, I didn’t sign because I didn’t understand it. When the man saw that I didn’t sign he said to me “Oh, you don’t want to get corrupt politicians out of office?” I responded with “Of course I do, but I can’t tell that that is what this is saying so I am choosing not to sign.” He rolled his eyes and repeatedly said that by not signing I want to keep corrupt politicians in office. The next petition was about informing parents when there child is having an abortion. For me that was a definite NO. Next, ban gay marriages, again, NO. Lastly, there was one for sustainable energy, sure I signed that one. (That doesn’t add up to seven but I don’t remember what the other ones were) I handed the clipboard back to the man and so did another one of my group mates. He then looked through the petitions to see which ones we signed. When he saw that we didn’t sign the one about informing parents he asked us why. Both of us responded by saying that we don’t think it is right and that the girls should be allowed to if they wish. I was thinking in my head, what nerve does this guy have to question what he sign and don’t sign and then he opened his mouth with “Well, I think that girls should just keep there legs closed (and he used his hands to demonstrate) and then there wouldn’t be a problem.” WHAT?!?!?!?!? How dare he say that? But it only got better, he looked at us and said “Oh, you are girls that is why you don’t want to sign.” The other man piped in with “We shouldn’t of found such smart girls to sign. Those who read don’t sign and those who sign don’t read.” This simple act of reading and signing petitions was turning into an offensive segmentation experience. It gets better. The man sitting next to me, flips over the clipboard and there is a voter registration form on the back. He asks me to just sign it. Of course, I as why because I am already registered to vote. He asks me when I registered. I informed him that I registered in January. He told me that was too long ago (ONE MONTH!) and that my signatures would be invalid and that all I need to do is sign and he will fill out the rest. I was so disgusted at this point I rolled my eyes and said “You have got to be kidding me, I am not going to sign that” At this point, I was so upset with them that I don’t even know if they said anything else and they just left. After they left the four of us discussed the experience and how disheartening it was to be ‘attacked’ like that. Later, one of the staff from the food court came up and told us that he kicked the two guys out. I don’t want to let that one experience with petitioners taint my perception of the rest of them but it is hard, I don’t foresee myself stopping and giving them the time of day any time soon. I hope that the man is right, that my signatures will be thrown out and he doesn't get a cent.

I was telling my boyfriend about my experience and he said that he had seen a report on the news where people are illegally re-registering people to vote and they change their political party without them knowing it. He said the scam was exactly what happened to me, a person signed the voter registration form and then the petitioner filled out the rest, changing their political party. The news report he mentioned it was Republicans doing it but I am sure it goes both ways. Now that I think about it, the topics were very much Republican issues. Ah, I really wish I would have never taken that clipboard!

Thank you!

Just a story to share that shows smiling at strangers does matter
I was walking home from coffee and found a bunch of white flowers on the ground so I bent down and picked it up. Flowers always make me smile so naturally I was smiling. Then an old man passed me carrying a box of to go food. For the most part I look up while I walk and try to make eye contact with the people I pass. This habit comes from a self-defense class I took years ago that instilled in me the importance of keeping your head high (not looking at the ground) to help prevent getting attacked. Thinking nothing of it, I smiled at the old man carrying the box of food and he kind of smiled back. When we were about ten steps away from each other he said "Excuse me" very loudly. When I turned around to see if he was speaking to me he looked at me with a large smile and said "Thank you for the smile." I smiled even larger and said "You are welcome" and then turned around to continue home. My entire disposition changed in that instant, I walked home with a happy bounce in my step and a perma-smile plastered to my face. So for all those people who avoid my eye contact and don't smile back, I will not remember them but I guarantee you a year down the road (even 10 years later) I will remember the old man who thanked me for my smile.

This is going to be a quick post but I found this website and I found it powerful and effective. It is about preventing brain injuries and to me it seems as if it is targeted towards young men who ride motorcycles and don't wear helmets. The pictures of the ladies are quite seductive and are obviously intended to get a young many attention, but the activities are kind of cool and put what it would be like to have a brain injury into perspective. Like we were talking about in class this week, the people who created this campaign did their formative research and segemented their auidence and decided to target young men through sex, looks, and money. Check out the website! www.protectyourhead.com

Class Project

So for class we all have a group project and personally I think the group and the organization I got assigned to is the best!!! We are working with Student Health Services to design a health communication campain for the Family PACT program. Family PACT is a statewide program that provides family planning services to anyone who is capapable of having a baby or creating a a baby (so that means guys ARE eligible). There are income guidelines and you are can't have other insurance that covers family planning (unless you want to keep it confidential and then you are still eligible). It is an amazing program that is totally under-utilized at SDSU. We met with Student Health Services last week and they told us that they fully plan on using whatever we create. It is so exciting to be doing something hands on and that will acutally be used. We are currently doing the formative research to collect info about who we are targeting and the best way to reach them. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the semester on how the project is going!

Check out the link www.familypact.org

Tell me more with an open face!

I challenge who ever is reading my blog (if there is anyone at all) to use these three powerful words when speaking to people. Instead of asking another question or asking why, simply request the person to expand on what they already said. Then wait and see where it goes. There may be silence, and that is ok, just let the person talk and you listen. I can guarantee that they will appreciate it and that you will find out something more interesting that if you continually bombarded them with questions or just didn’t listen at all. One more challenge, when you talk to someone keep your eye brows raised, see how that changes your facial expression and your voice. I think so many of us go through our lives with a frown and/or blank stares. Try smiling when you talk and just notice how the other person responds. But more importantly notice how much better your feel about the conversations you have. It is amazing how simply raising your eye brown can change how you approach people and challenges in your life.

Midwest Teen Sex Show

CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE…This is the Midwest Teen Sex Show and they create sex information videos for teenagers. The videos are so funny yet full of valuable information that is so taboo in our society. Below is just one example of what the shows are like but check out the website because they are all worth seeing




Here is the website. www.midwestteensexshow.com

The sad part is these videos would never be used in a classroom setting so teens are left to find them on their own. It looks as if they just had some major national exposure on CBS evening news so hopefully more and more teens will find out about them and watch them (if it is just because they are funny.)

US vs THEM

Another thing we learned about in class was the importance of the way messages are delivered. Are they sender driven or receiver driven? Are we, public health professionals, the focus of the communication or are the customers (patients) at the center? A perfect example of a customer focused health campaign is the Kaiser Thrive Campaign. The commercials always catch my attention on TV and are focused around giving the members power over their own health. I hadn’t seen the commercial below before but I think it is brilliant!

How many health messages do YOU receive?

Everyone of us is exposed to health communications. Whether we pay attention or not is a whole different story. This past week I spent 24 hours counting the communication messages I was exposed to. I had to separate them into health messages and non-health messages. I had a hard time counting the non health messages simply because there were so many of them. However, spending 24 hours of being extremely cognizant of all the health messages in my life was eye opening. In one commercial break during Extreme Home Makeover (yes, I love that show) there were 4 health commercials and 4 non health commercial. That is ONE commercial break!!!!! We learned about the Communication Persuasion Matrix which includes and one of the categories is exposure. I can tell you one thing, all of us are definitely being exposed to health messages. The challenge comes in fulfilling the other steps of the matrix; getting our attention, interest, understanding, yielding, and behavior change. I challenge you to just pay attention for 20 minutes to see how many health messages you are exposed to. Then think about how many you regularly pay attention to and how many affect your health behaviors? I guess it depends on how important the issue is to you. You pay attention to things that you care about and you ignore things that you think don’t pertain to you. Then how do you get a person to pay attention to something that they should care about but don’t? Ah, the challenge of creating a successful health message….

Testing out my very own blog

This is my first post on my first blog, how exciting. We are doing this as a part of a Health Communication class to explore the vast world of online communication. I can't wait to see how this develops throughout the semester!!!!