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The new year brings us into a new decade, and with that, comes a new set of Healthy People objectives. It may surprise you to know that health communication is a topic area covered by Healthy People. In 2010, 13 “Health Communication and Health Information Technology” goals were included for Healthy People 2020, each with at least one objective (for a total of 25 measurable objectives):
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Welcome to Let's Talk Public Health!
Tis the season for many things: cold temperatures, the holiday rush, and, of course, one of the largest annual gatherings of public health professionals (the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting). The theme for this year’s annual meeting was: “Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health." In order for us to achieve this goal, we must take time to understand the nation’s people. Who are they? Where are they? What is their current health status? Which social determinants of health are impacting them? What barriers to healthy living and quality of life are they facing? What are their health-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors? And so on. While there is a good deal of research on past generations, the literature on the newly coined “Gen Z” (those people currently ages 7-22) is limited, but growing. This fall, we aim to understand Gen Z -- their attitudes and beliefs around health and how they seek and interact with health information. Engaging Gen Z, the first generation of “digital natives,” will require public health organizations and brands to be up with the latest trends in digital content marketing. We’ll be talking about that as well. Stay tuned for our series on Gen Z + Health. Best, Monique Thornton, MPH Welcome to Let's Talk Public Health!
It’s back-to-school time, and this month, we’re focusing on entertainment education (or edutainment). How can we share health information and conduct health education in an environment where people are bombarded with 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day? How do we grasp their attention? How do we get people engaged in the conversation? One idea: We entertain them. We meet them with messages in the shows and movies they are watching, the literature and content they are reading, and the podcasts and other audio to which they are listening. We do what corporations and commercial businesses have been doing for years: product placement.
You following me? I'm talking about incorporating health messages and behaviors into the dialogue and plot lines of popular fictional stories about characters people are invested in or can easily get invested in. How can we do this? Stay tuned. We've got some great content in store for you this month, including:
Best, Monique Thornton, MPH Welcome to Let's Talk Public Health!
The digital space is evolving. That means that we, as public health communication professionals, need to evolve too. Keeping up with new developments and advances in technology will be key in maximizing our reach to our target audiences. The Tech + Health Comm blog post for June discusses voice technology and how health-related brands/organizations can optimize for voice search. If you haven't already, also check out the previous Tech + Health Comm post on virtual reality, augmented reality, and 360-degree content. These technologies are still burgeoning. As they advance and as new features and uses emerge, so do potential opportunities to reach target audiences with public health content. Let's not miss out! Thanks for visiting the site. I hope you come back soon. Better yet, become a contributor. There are lots of things to discuss! Best, Monique Thornton, MPH Hello. Welcome to Let's Talk Public Health!
This blog exists solely because the world of public health communication and marketing is vast and ever-changing. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need to get things on paper to make sense of it all. In a world where the digital/virtual space is becoming more and more seamless with reality and where technology continues to advance how we collect, process, use and share information, we have to do what we can to keep up with change. This blog is an attempt to keep pace, and to also build and explore new paths. I've been working as a public health professional for 5 years--mainly on federal health communication, social marketing, and product development projects--and in that short span, the communication landscape has shifted. With the introduction and expansion of different tech and tools, how do we best reach the people we'd like to reach? And how do we get our messages to stick? The goal with this site is to promote the exchange of ideas, experiences, observations, thoughts, findings, etc. I hope you visit often, not only to read, but to also share! Together, we can make sense of it all. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you come back soon. Better yet, submit a blog post and become a contributor. We'd love to hear from you! Best, Monique Thornton, MPH |
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