Thesis

Yes, I'm still working on my thesis. I think I talk more about the process of getting it done rather than spending time completing it. Just now, I felt so determined to finally sit and work on the edits I just got back from my advisor. My goal is to defend by December and I WILL GET IT DONE! Ok, I feel better having this in writing so I'll go ahead and work on it a bit more and keep my readers informed of my process (in case you all care) :-) If you're my friend and reading this, you BETTER care! ;)

Wish me luck!

P.S. I am actually enjoying this learning process (in case you needed to know again).

Farewell

Well, the end of the semester is approaching very quickly and I am very overwhelmed with all the work that I have to accomplish. This means that my health communication class is also coming to an end which means no more blogging for me. I'm just kidding :) I actually feel very accomplished and good about blogging every week and might still continue doing it. My health communication class was definitely very informative and interesting in comparison to my other classes this semester. The key thing I can take from this class is the importance of our target audience and placing them in the center, AND look for ways to reach and meet their needs through formative research. I also learned that we definitely have to keep up to date with all the entertainments out there to be able to incorporate health messages that would grab our audience attention. So many great technologies exist that would make our job easier in trying to reach the right target audience. As I have mentioned earlier in the semester, our health is the most important thing in life. Another important essential part of our lives is communication and if we combine the two then health communications becomes a huge part of our lives. Thus, we should make sure we can get our health messages across through effective communications. In my health communication course, I leaned various techniques in using effective communication to promote health. It was great and hopefully I will use these techniques throughout my career path in Public Health!

Health Entertainment

Entertainment indeed can play a very powerful role in health education. For instance, at the end of the day, when people get home from work, they are tired and are most likely to seek entertainment by turning on their TV. Thus, it is very important to incorporate health messages within the entertainment media. Using entertainment for health promotion, however, can be a challenge and requires some creative thoughts and of course formative research. After watching Simpsons in class, I agree that the health message was not that powerful to me perhaps because it is a cartoon and I don’t know how much I can trust the information coming from Homer. But this might be great for the right audience such as kids. So, choosing the right audience is another important thing to take into consideration when using entertainment for health promotion purposes. Overall, health entertainment is a great way to reach most audiences out there.

The interactive games related to health are so fascinating and a great learning tool for everyone especially kids! Technology is advancing so much and so fast that it almost makes is impossible to keep up. However, this is a good thing specifically with the existence of web 2.0 where it allows for democracy. Now, people all over the world are able to connect in many different ways which weren’t able to do some time ago. There are numerous opportunities for everyone with different purposes using web 2.0. There are sites for socialization, networking, exchanging ideas, blogging, etc. This is especially invaluable since health information can also be exchanged this way. However, not all health information out there is credible. Thus, this can create challenges for Public Health professionals as far as ensuring that the public or the consumers out there are accessing the right sites and gaining accurate knowledge. For instance, it has been extremely easy for me to find many articles online through databases regarding my thesis. On the other hand, if I had only Google searched tobacco, many site including non-credible ones will also come up. Then, I would have to be very cautious in selecting accurate information since false info could also be coming from Tobacco companies and corporations. We also need to be very cautious about sharing our personal info on the web since there are hackers and cyber preditors who have nothing better to do with their lives.

"Killing us softly"

The clip “killing us softly” by Jean Killbourne was amazing and I enjoyed it very much. She is a very powerful speaker and I would recommend everyone out there to watch this, especially the women in our society as they should all be familiar with who she is. It definitely made me think about the advertisement industry and how they portray women to sell their products. She spoke of things that had not crossed my mind and stuck with me ever since then. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that women are used as objects and this problem is definitely not getting any better in our society but WORSE. I think a huge part of a public health professional’s goal should be informing especially the young girls about all these ads that surround them everywhere from TV to magazines to help them realize that there shouldn't be any expectations from them. Our society emphasizes so much about sex, money, and looks that it's so hard not to notice it and turn away from it. Perhaps public health professionals can start with parents and familiarize them with some of the ways to avoid all that are very influential to their kids.

"Health Care Public Relation and Promotion"

The News Release exercise we did in class helped tremendously in understanding the objectives of creating one. The lecture by Jim McBride was very informative. I learned many of the Public Health tools such as Pitch Letters, News Releases, Media Advisories, etc. In addition, the way Jim McBride defined the differences between Public Relations and Marketing was very clear and effective. He made a clear distinction on how marketing is more complex than advertising and how Public Relation is different than Marketing. Since PR was his area of expertise, he was able to clearly explain how PR is a two-way communication in which involves problem solving and managing issues. I really enjoyed his lecture and he was very funny!

Formative Research in Depth

Our guest speaker Dr. Lloyd was very enlightening in presenting how formative research was put into action. The posters were an effective way of showing how communication can best reach target audience. Of course, in that particular poster one could still understand what the message is without knowing how to read and understand another language. In addition, Dr. Lloyd was very encouraging and made the process of creating an effective campaign even more interesting. The topic of identity building, branding, image, and positioning was very informative and made me realize how all of this plays such a tremendous role in our lives. I totally agree with what Amanda is saying towards the end of her comment about branding and how we set these brands and position them in our mind. It would be very nice if we could do the same with health related issues. Oh and by the way I look forward to watching the movie “Reefer Madness”!