Janice's Reflection #10

This week we had our presentations for Project #2. It seems as though our health campaign was 'well received' this time around. (Not like our first presentation was horrible or anything... this time around, we were more confident about our project). But, now that we've gotten into the meat and potatoes of our campaign, everything about our project is becoming more cohesive.

Just as we learned from our first class meeting, it is crucial to do formative research on your health topic. We definitely have learned the importance of formative research throughout this semester.

Since this semester began, I have found myself taking note of the different channels of media we live with on a daily basis. I find that I ask myself, "are they targeting low or high involvement?" It's interesting to note different tv commercials or advertisements on Facebook since the company who put the message out there most likely went through the same training we are going through in this course.

11/21 reflection

I thought all the group presentations this week were really good and creative. The physical activity group did a nice job of creating 5 different print messages for their two segments of children. The results from their focus group were interesting to learn about which messages were the most popular among the segments. I, personally, would not have predicted that the calendar message to have been as popular as it was. In the end, the group learned that the messages should actually be flip-flopped between the segments. I thought the Gardasil video was especially creative and that it was an appropriate channel for their target audience. I also liked the group's sample Facebook page and how it provided an example of a social media outlet for their message. From all the group presentations, the most important thing that I took away this week was the power of focus groups and feedback from the target audiences. This is extremely important when designing health communication messages because without the direct feedback from the target audience, there is no way of knowing whether or not the message is appropriate or effective for that particular group.

Presentation week reflection

This week we gave our presentations for project #2.  I was interested to see how other groups interpreted the assignment.  In a health communication class that has really given us free creative reign on the details of our campaigns, the variety is interesting to see.  Based on the frameworks provided in class, everyone addressed their topics with proper channels and methods, but seeing their execution was awesome.  The SexFXu campaign was awesome because I never would have thought to actually make a video to post on youtube or to air on tv.  This was such a good idea for targeting their intended population.  I really thought that our group's materials were excellently made and applied well to our target population. The suggestions that we got from our focus groups were the most helpful in really getting an idea  of what this group wants and needs.  For the next project we are going to utilize all the information we got.


On a side note, as I was driving to the coffee shop where our MPH cohort and friends and I like to study, i made a realization.  I truly am a Trendsetter! haha! But it's true! Our friend Alexis had been going to Filter for months before she finally invited me to join her. As soon as i stated studying there, all my other MPH cohort friends stated.  Now, on a consistent basis, we all meet to study, talk, laugh and write together. Just putting my health comm knowledge into relevance! yay!

Different Things for Different People

This week one of the student presentations was on The Healthy Penis Campaign, and how different cities had slightly different media campaigns. San Francisco's messages were positive and humorous, while Los Angelos used a more serious approach. This presentation really caught my attention for a few reasons: 1) I thought humor wasn't very effective and 2) People seemed to appreciate positive messages.

This is something that directly relates to our own campaign on making healthy choices. One suggestion that was made by some of our low involvement focus group participants was to add statistics to our posters (which oddly enough, an article we read earlier in class suggests statistics are more for the highly involved). Not only was the addition of statistics suggested, but using positive messages was emphasized. People want to see how they can improve themselves, their looks, their health. Not how certain eating habits can potentially lead to heart attack or stroke. This experience really stressed the importance of formative research and getting feedback on materials despite what is expected for the segments. Not everyone in a segment is necessarily going to agree, or follow the pattern you expect.

11/14 reflection

This week's student presentation about syphilis campaigns in different U.S. cities was pretty interesting. The Healthy Penis campaign established in San Francisco was an example of a social marketing approach that used humor and positive messages to provide information about the STI issue. An approach I consider to be quite rare in promoting health education and especially STIs. I thought it was funny and witty to see comic strips highlight the "Phil the Sore" and "Healthy Penis" as a way to bring attention to the importance of getting tested for syphilis among MSM. It would be great if we had some kind of similar marketing using humor at Planned Parenthood to educate and motivate other segments of community to get tested.

In our group messages for project 2, we also attempted to use humor (although more subtle) as a social marketing approach. But I think using humor can sometimes be difficult to apply in social marketing and a careful balance has to be identified. The syphilis campaigns identified in class were good examples of how cartoon messages using humor can convey important health information to receptive communities.

Reflection 11/14

This week I read an article about Media Advocacy and was intrigued by the idea of advocacy in general. I enjoyed our guest lecture as a compliment to the information I had ascertained from the article I read and it helped foster some good thoughts for our project. In a hypothetical sense our group is considering doing a social media page for our low involvement group and some sort of television news effort for our high involvement group. When I consider all of this I think these methods are great for providing general information to our target audiences to continue and promote the behavior we are looking for, but is it right for advocacy efforts?

I don’t think so. I think if we are to consider efforts of advocacy we would need to work with the university television system and local networks to “expose” the situation of unhealthy food options in the dining halls. I think in order to do this in real life we would need to be able to show the situation as it exists and find students that were willing to demonstrate or protest for change. I realize this is all hypothetical but I think for our project we should consider some form of a media advocacy campaign by which we share news releases or what-have you to help promote the issue.

Janice's Reflection #10

On Sunday, we had our focus groups. Being that it was the first time I've ever been involved with setting up a focus group, I think it went rather well and it was definitely a great learning experience. Our health campaign print media went through a lot of constructive criticism. Hearing about the likes and dislikes of their initial reactions/feelings about the posters was really interested as well as exciting. Here we were, after weeks of hard work, putting it to the test, and checking to see if our campaign would work in the 'real world' with our target population. The on-campus residents offered a lot of good feedback on areas that needed improvement, and overall, the messages were well-received and considered positive, creative, gender-friendly, and eye-catching.

Some of the feedback was interesting to hear, such as adding a 'positive' statistic to our low involvement print media. So, when our group debriefed after the focus group, we thought about re-making our low involvement messages by going through the 'back door.' We felt that certain statements made by going through the 'back door' may have a bigger influence on those who have a low involvement in making healthy eating choices. We are now going to the drawing board and thinking of creative messages that would capture this segment of our target population.

In the end, we want our messages to provoke positive thoughts in those who walk by and read our print media. We are aware that many college students are 'stubborn' about the food choices they make due to individual reasons. So, hopefully we are able to brainstorm new and insightful ways of capturing the attention of both segments we have chosen for our project.