Lawrence Wallack

Charles K. Atkin

The media influence how we live--and die. Tobacco can kill us, yet we continue to smoke. Drinking and driving is a lethal combination, yet we continue to drive when inebriated. Poor diet slowly destroys us, yet we continue to eat unhealthily. Why? Evolving from a national conference, Mass Communication and Public Health examines why public information campaigns have achieved limited success and what can be done to improve their effectiveness. This up-to-date volume has a fourfold focus:

Complexities and Conflicts

Mass Communication and Public Health

Lori Dorfman

David Jernigan

Makani Themba-Nixon

Using the media to promote public health is an innovative and valuable approach. Media Advocacy and Public Health develops the concept of media advocacy as a central strategy for the prevention of public health problems. How we think about health problems, and what we do about them, is largely determined by how they are reported on television, radio, and in the newspaper. Often, crucial issues of public health policy are discussed and decided only after they are made visible by the media. A traditional communication strategy like social marketing focuses on giving people a message. Media advocacy gives people a voice. The first book of its kind, Media Advocacy and Public Health lays out the theoretical framework and practical guidelines to successful media advocacy strategies. Eight case studies, ranging from alcohol to AIDS, vividly illustrate how media advocacy has been successfully applied.

Lawrence Wallack

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