by: Chinyere Amobi
posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2022
For every news story about soaring case counts and other struggles facing public health workers amid COVID, there are countless other untold tales about the long-standing work public health advocates and health departments have done in communities to earn trust, dispel misinformation, and meet essential needs. A recent conversation with reporters surfaced several important tips on how advocates can get their issues — and the stories behind their work — into the news.
Tags: health equity, media advocacy
by: Vivian Taina
posted on Thursday, January 13, 2022
Misinformation and disinformation are fueling vaccine hesitancy and discouraging communities from seeking out services that could improve their lives. Addressing these threats is a public health imperative.
Tags: covid, COVID-19, disinformation, health communication, health messaging, misinformation
by: Heather Gehlert and Katherine Schaff
posted on Friday, December 17, 2021
Check out BMSG’s top picks of the year. These selections can help advocates communicate more effectively about everything from breakthrough infections to the science behind vaccines to the need for prevention.
Tags: media bites, metaphors, public health
by: Heather Gehlert and Katherine Schaff
posted on Wednesday, December 08, 2021
In this blog, we go behind the scenes to explore strategic communication insights from a housing justice coalition’s recent policy wins and challenges, as well as implications for future campaigns. Advocates share lessons on rapid-response data collection, tailoring frames to different audiences, building a diverse group of spokespeople, and more.
Tags: coalition building, health equity, housing justice, media advocacy, narrative power, strategic communication
by: Heather Gehlert
posted on Thursday, November 18, 2021
New media analysis research from Berkeley Media Studies Group, conducted for Voices for Healthy Kids, an initiative of the American Heart Association, reveals strategic communication lessons for advocates looking to implement taxes on sugary drinks.
by: Heather Gehlert
posted on Friday, September 17, 2021
As gun violence rises and journalists pledge to cover the issue more effectively, BMSG researchers wanted to know how news about gun violence and firearm suicide has changed in recent years. Has the volume of coverage in California outlets increased or decreased? What types of violence receive the most attention? Is prevention present? A forthcoming BMSG news analysis, conducted in collaboration with our partners at the Hope and Heal Fund, will answer these and other questions about gun violence in the news. To learn more and to hear directly from our researchers, register for this Oct. 7 webinar.
Tags: community violence, domestic violence, firearm suicide, gun violence, news analysis, public health, violence prevention
by: Heather Gehlert and Shaddai Martinez Cuestas
posted on Thursday, June 24, 2021
When presented strategically, data can help tell an important story about childhood trauma. Here are a few tips for presenting numbers in ways that advance efforts to reduce adversity, promote resilience, and improve health outcomes.
Tags: ACEs, adverse childhood experiences, childhood trauma, data, PACEs, strategic communication
by: Lori Dorfman and Lucy Martinez Sullivan and Saru Jayaraman
posted on Monday, May 17, 2021
The National Restaurant Association makes taxpayers eat the cost of not paying a living wage. And even some of its largest members are disavowing its stance on raising the minimum wage.
Tags: fight for 15, food industry, minimum wage, national restaurant association, other NRA
by: Heather Gehlert
posted on Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Sharing messages and conducting outreach on social media may be an important way to advance equity, as doing so allows advocates to bypass traditional gatekeepers and elevate voices of color in a historically white, male-dominated industry. But how effective is this approach? A new study about tweetchats, published last month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, offers insights into how effective these social events have been in making health inequities among Latinx populations more visible and moving people to act.
Tags: health equity, media advocacy, tweetchats
by: Lori Dorfman
posted on Thursday, March 04, 2021
Headlines about misinformation and vaccine hesitancy may be overshadowing the bigger problem of structural barriers and a fractured health care system, which are major reasons why many communities of color have not received their share of vaccines. BMSG’s Lori Dorfman reflects on this and other lessons following a recent national forum on the COVID vaccine.
Tags: covid, COVID-19, misinformation, public health, vaccination, vaccine
