Group Project Presentations 2

In the spirit of seeing Public Health everywhere and trying to incorporate it into health campaigns... I'm watching "Grey's Anatomy" and my mom noticed that the doctors are typing at the computer with surgical gloves on. Hello sanitation. Very bad example. But maybe it could be part of a "what not to do" blooper reel for medical/nursing students? And I called it when I said that the guy eating random things has Pica. Thank you PH 604!

So about our group presentation:
I think that we did a great job connecting the objectives to specific messages. We also adapted well when our idea to use SDSU NOW as a focus group. Apparently three of my emails are now in the great abyss in cyberspace now. Or people don't feel inclined to help out someone they don't know. Even if I am a student. Note to self for the future: always have pity on poor little students. And answer emails.

Things we need to work on include having a set standard definition for Shakti. They already have explanations of the organization, but they involve a lot of jargon that might be confusing. We also need to think about what "method" we are using. I thought it was a general word, not a list of specifics.

Well I have faith in our group. Wish I had faith in myself to finish this stupid "Comprehensive Exam", oh and to pass my classes. I'll quit with the whining now....

Great job on the projects class! We're almost there!

Poopular Culture and Entertainment

It was fun watching clips in class and reading about other people's reactions. Laura brought up some old-shool examples (yay Saved By the Bell!) that used popular entertainment to bring up health issues. The 80's were great for that. Didn't Nancy Reagan guest-star on a popular show to talk about the dangers of drugs? It was part of her "Just Say No" campaign. I think that it can be a good idea to use popular shows to access certain sections of the population. But it can back-fire. Some of them can seem really trite and make a serious situation seem also laughable. Going back to the "Saved by the Bell" example, I remember the over-acting that went into Jesse's caffeine pills. It was a bit of a mockery.

On the other hand, maybe using characters that the audience identifies with to illustrate a health danger will help by-pass defense mechanisms. Maybe it will be like it happened to a friend, and that therefore it could also happen to them personally.

Ah, the double-edged sword.

Web 2.0

In class, we talked about how accessible the web is now. But I disagree- there is still an elitist element to it. Ironically, I've learned that while helping with this class. I can't format the course concepts correctly on this blog! This is interesting since I taught myself HTML! Ok, that was back in high-school, but please! The code I found shouldn't look like a complete foreign language. And yet... I still can't get the clickable table to work. So making web sites/content isn't as simple as the class, and the video example seemed to suggest. Web programmers and site masters will still be around!

But it is interesting that people feel more comfortable posting on the internet. In my opinion, it's an evolution because it seems kind of unavoidable. The internet made billionaires out of normal people, so it makes sense that it would become the forum for and by the people at some point. With all of the content (and some rubbish) out there, a need might arise for more content moderators. Does the Wikipedia style of public moderation work? Well, let me put it to you this way: We still can't list it as an academic resource in papers!

Week 10 (Already...ahhh!!!)

In class this week, a lot of the time was taken up by a speaker who taught us about Public Relations. When I think of PR, I do not think of Health Promotion. Instead, I think of people selling products/clients and manipulating the public into buying them. I know- that's really unfair! But this lecture showed how to harness the power of PR for good, not evil. None of us like to think of ourselves as "salespeople". But maybe we should. We've talked about this in class too, but it kinda clicked this week. By trying to "sell" health, we can better combat those who are selling the unhealthy products. It teaches us to try harder and pay attention to what the public wants-- and that translates into more effective Health Promotion. Tough to take in some ways, but I think it's true!

Personally, I did like the speaker. It was a little weird that she didn't have any visual materials-- is that some new presentation technique? Too many people use visuals in order to hide the fact that they don't know what they are talking about. Not so here.

I also thought it was interesting that she played "Spill Your Guts" with me when I walked her to her car-- and I didn't realize it until I got back to class! She could give lessons on that too! Anyways I got an intro to PR that I'm looking forward to applying in the project (what a nerd huh?).