Media Advocacy: A Strategy for Empowering People and Communities

Abstract

Media advocacy is a new strategy that is emerging in the public health community. It has been particularly visible in communities of color. Media advocacy is defined as the strategic use of mass media to advance public policy initiatives. Media advocacy is rooted in community advocacy and has as its goal the promotion of healthy public policies. It can be differentiated from traditional mass media strategies in a number of ways. Media advocacy shifts the focus from the personal to the social, from the individual to the political, from the behavior or practice to the policy or environment. While traditional media approaches try to fill the "knowledge gap," media advocacy addresses the "power gap." Improvements in health status are believed to come about primarily from gaining more power over the policy environment rather than simply gaining more knowledge about health behaviors.

Approaches to Print Media Advocacy for the Control of HIV/AIDS: Case of Cameroon Tribune and the POST Newspapers

“…The third step is to frame the issue and construct messages. The fourth step is to construct an overall media advocacy plan for delivering the message and creating pressure for change [8].…”

“…Lippman as cited in Wallack [8], identified three main functions of media advocacy in health promotion namely; Agenda setting: Media advocacy uses the media to place attention on an issue by bringing it to light. Substantial evidence suggests that the media agenda determines the public agenda: what is on people's minds reflects what is in the media.…”

Childhood, Adolescent, and Teenage Obesity: Recommendations for Community Initiatives in Central Harlem

“…As Wallack (2005) observed, "Fundamental to media advocacy is knowing what policy goals you want to accomplish" (p. 423). The coalition would support the current bills that are up for consideration in the federal, state, and local governments that curtail student access to "junk food" and vending machines in schools.…”

Community-Based Approaches for the Prevention of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use

“…Radio, television, and print media can provide people with the skills and information necessary to change the social and environmental factors that influence their health, rather than simply providing skills and knowledge intended to change personal behavior (115,116). The goal of such media advocacy is to empower people such that they become active participants in the decision-making processes shaping the social and political context in which individual-level decisions about behavior are made.…”