Advocacy Campaigns Research Articles

The Political Economic Structure of Early Media Reform Before and After the Communications Act of 1934

This paper examines how early media reform work evolved from political activism into a system-building advocacy campaign in support of Schools of the Air between 1930 and 1940. Calling upon archival work that focuses on 1935–1940 records, it examines how prominent activist groups the National Committee for Education by Radio (NCER) and the National Advisory Council for Radio in Education (NACRE) shifted their strategic approaches to adjust to the “public interest” mandate of the Communications Act of 1934. Though scholarship has chronicled disagreements between the NCER and NACRE over how to best support educational broadcasting, a dialectical interplay emerged after the act during the New Deal due to the influence of the Federal Radio Education Committee (FREC). FREC inspired A.G. Crane of the NCER to build the Rocky Mountain Radio Council (RMRC). The RMRC was the first sustainable educational media network, and the group coined the term public broadcasting. While the Communications Act signaled the end of the first wave of media activism, the policy also inspired reformers to develop a new system-building strategy that set the groundwork for NPR and PBS.

Improving the Awareness of Stakeholders on Anti-Bullying Through Advocacy Campaign

Knowing the benefits of implementing the Anti-Bullying Law in the country, and the Advocacy Campaign on Anti-bullying was implemented to address the bullying problems in Sta. Justina High School. The descriptive method was employed in discussing the responses. This is community outreach and impactconfined to the assessment of the Level of Awareness on Anti-Bullying Law of the selected stakeholders of Sta. Justina High School. Findings revealed that the level of awareness of stakeholders on anti-bullying, the adoption of the anti-bullying policy, and mechanisms to address bullying were aware before implementing the intervention. The implementation of the Advocacy Campaign was Highly Implemented, and the level of acceptance of the strategies was highly accepted. The advocacy campaign was very effective and improved the awareness of the stakeholders after its implementation. Furthermore, the acts of bullying, adoption of anti-bullying policies, the mechanism to address bullying, problems encountered on anti-bullying, level of implementation, and acceptance of the strategies and activities implemented have a significant relationship to the level of awareness stakeholders anti-bullying. Therefore, it is recommended that the Advocacy Campaign on Anti-Bullying be institutionalized in other schools in Schools Division Office (SDO) Camarines Sur to combat bullying in schools. This was funded under the Basic Education Research Fund (BERF) through the Division Research Committee and PPRD Region V.

Civic activism for community access television in the US state of Maine

For almost five decades Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) TV has been a staple of US community media, providing a forum for the cablecast of locally made content and the expression of viewpoints unheard and unseen on commercial television. But PEG TV faces existential and other threats in the face of a neo-liberal attrition of non-commercial public arenas, policy deregulation and changes to the media marketplace. In this article, the volunteer-driven advocacy campaign on behalf of PEG TV launched in Maine after one of the cable corporations operating in this state sought to disenfranchise community access television by ‘slamming’ its channels is explored. How the campaign was able to mobilize and win support for its cause, leading to an eventual victory in Maine’s state legislature, is examined. This instance served as an important illustration of a media policy advocacy effort that targeted a US state’s law, rather than federal or local law, as is more commonly the case.

A Seat at the Table: Centering the Voices of Gun Violence Survivors.

The following is the winning submission from the Fourth Annual Section on Pediatric Trainees Essay Competition. This year's competition was informed by the 2019-2020 Section on Pediatric Trainees Advocacy Campaign: Protect Kids - Trainees for Firearm Safety. We asked writers to share their experiences as pediatric trainee advocates for gun violence prevention and were impressed by the breadth of entries we received from around the country. The winning essay by Dr Kamaal Jones was focused on amplifying the voice of gun violence survivors. Dr Jones eloquently implores us to offer gun violence survivors "A Seat at the Table," so that our policies may be shaped by survivors' lived experiences and calls for change. This inspiring piece reminds us that listening to the community is a critical first step in our advocacy efforts and that doing so can empower us to make the greatest impact. Names and minor identifying details have been altered to protect the privacy of group members.

The General Public's Support Toward Governmental Provision of Free/Subsidized HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis to At-Risk Chinese People: A Population-Based Study.

Given its high cost, governmental financing is essential for promoting HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The study investigated levels and associated factors of the general public's support toward governmental provision of free or subsidized PrEP to Chinese people at high risk of HIV. A population-based random telephone survey was conducted among 300 residents in Hong Kong, China, from June to July, 2019. Descriptive analyses and logistic regression were performed. The prevalence rates of supportive attitude for free and subsidized PrEP were 30.0% and 30.3%, respectively; opinions were split, as similar proportions showed oppositional attitude. Those who were older, had less education, did not have a full-time job, or reported a lower household income were less likely to support free or subsidized PrEP. Stigmatizing attitudes against homosexuals (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.81; 95% CI, 0.73-0.89) and perceived negative societal impacts of free PrEP (AOR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70-0.87) were negatively associated with the support for free PrEP. Compassion to others (AOR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.01-1.21), perceived positive societal impacts of free PrEP (AOR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.43-2.44), and the belief that the positive impacts would overweigh the negative impacts (AOR, 26.97; 95% CI, 10.66-68.24) were positively associated with the support for free PrEP. Similar associations were observed for the support toward subsidized PrEP. The Hong Kong general public's support for government financial assistance of PrEP for people at high risk of HIV was low. Preexposure prophylaxis advocacy campaigns are warranted and suggested to incorporate components that address the associated factors.

Use of a video-based assessment to build authentic public health skills

Abstract Background Public health education should have strong connections to applied public health practice. Health communication, including an ability to interpret and transmit knowledge, are core competencies for public health graduates. These skills have traditionally been assessed via standard oral presentations. A diversity of tasks can increase student engagement and motivation about assessments. The use of video-based assessments is a relatively new assessment format in post-graduate education. An authentic task was created where post-graduate public health students at Macquarie University, Australia collaborated in groups to create an advocacy campaign video as part of an assessment. These videos were shown at a short film event and students additionally reflected on their experience. Objective Can use of a student-produced health promotion video as a team-based assessment task lead to development of: competency in delivering public health communication; technical skills in videography; skills in team engagement and foster deep reflective thought? Results On average student grades were higher in the video task than other unit tasks, demonstrating students' competency in delivering public health messages. Unit reflections across three years revealed student benefits included: task enjoyment; feelings of achievement; opportunities to apply learning and new teamwork and videography skills. Unit evaluations found 96% of students reported an increased understanding of advocacy and health promotion and 87% reported the reflective task further consolidated learning. Unit convenor reflections include enhanced student engagement due to novelty, more scope for original presentation of work and similar convening efforts compared to traditional presentations. Conclusions This simple innovative video assessment is a practical and authentic way of teaching graduate public health students how to communicate public health messages and could be replicated in other courses. Key messages A student-produced video advocacy campaign assessment can offer student engagement and authentic learning in graduate public health education. Implementation of this convenient video-based assessment could be adapted in other courses in public health education.

Media's mixed messages on trans fat and sodium reductions during the policy making process

Abstract Background During the mid-2000's, reductions in the population intake of trans fat and sodium were commitments of the Government of Canada to reduce population risk for chronic disease. During the policy making process, various stakeholders interpreted and applied evidence in a range of ways to suit their interests. Media as a stakeholder has a powerful role in shaping both political will and public opinion. Methods A media analysis was conducted from 2004 - 2013 to access how trans fats and sodium reduction was portrayed in the Canadian media. Qualitative thematic analysis captured key subject areas including political ideology, personal responsibility/freedoms, industry tactics, evidence updates/disputes and health harms. Overall tone was assessed to be neutral, opposed or in favour of policy regulation. The number of quotes from key stakeholders contributed to the tone classification. Quantitative assessments compared the tone between trans fat and sodium cases. Results Trans fat and sodium were portrayed very differently by the media. Preliminary results show that trans fat was depicted as a harmful industry ingredient, used to extend profits at the expense of public health. On the other hand, communications around sodium research and evidence was not consistent. Media often pitted members of the scientific community against each other and reported on new studies that were outliers to the evidence base. Conclusions The media has an important role to play in shaping public perspectives on nutrition issues and related policy development. The media's mixed messages on sodium reduction may have contributed to the lack of political will and government's policy inaction. Public health practitioners and researchers should consider building in knowledge translation strategies into nutrition advocacy campaigns and research releases. Without these important strategies, the media's framing of nutrition issues could be counter-intuitive to public health aims. Key messages Media seems to have played a key factor in the the development of both trans fat and sodium reduction policies in Canada. Framing of nutrition research results and advocacy messages should align with public health policy goals.

From Culture to Claimsmaking

Conceptual approaches to claimsmaking often feature the overarching symbolic templates of political culture or else the strategic actor of the social movement framing approach. Both approaches have value, but neither shows adequately how cultural context influences claimsmaking in everyday situations. To better understand cultural context and situated claimsmaking together, we retheorize the concept of discursive field, showing how such a field is sustained through interaction. Claimsmakers craft claims from basic symbolic categories, in line with the appropriate style for a scene of interaction. Scene style induces external and internal boundaries to a discursive field, making some claims illegitimate and others inappropriate or else subordinate in a given scene. Conceptualizing how culture works in a discursive field helps us better understand what claimsmakers can say, how, and where. We illustrate the theoretical reconstruction with an ethnographic and archival study of different settings of a housing advocacy campaign.

Identifying societal challenges in flood early warning systems

Flood Early Warning Systems (FEWS) are implemented in many parts of the world, but early warnings do not always translate into an emergency response from all individuals at risk. This article examines challenges such as warning communication and community response capabilities. Literature review, global online survey results, and experiential knowledge helped identify cross-cutting issues such as failure to use participatory approaches involving communities and addressing their concerns in warning, insufficient preparedness and response levels of FEWS, inadequate translation of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies into action at the community level, lack of DRR knowledge and practices among key stakeholders, insufficient gender and social inclusion in all stages of FEWS, gaps in institutional communication and collaboration, and, finally, technical and financial constraints. The paper also discusses the contribution of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in addressing the identified challenges and eventually strengthening FEWS locally. CSOs were found to act positively at local level challenges and significantly contribute to addressing them through tailored solutions to community concerns. Such solutions include DRR awareness campaigns to educate the communities and key officials; enhanced communication between vulnerable communities and local authorities; transforming reactive community response that relied on government officials to a risk-informed and self-prepared community response; gender inclusion and diversity in various stages of FEWS; and advocacy campaigns to build resilience to disasters. Eventually, policy-based recommendations that can help to root out the challenges discussed in this study are presented.

How We Fail Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

PurposeFor over two decades, we have known that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are underserved. We have also known that DLD does not attract the research attention that it merits given its prevalence and impact. The purposes of this clinical focus article are to present evidence that these failures continue, explore the reasons behind these failures, and propose solutions.MethodI reviewed the literature and applied bibliometric analysis procedures from Bishop (2010) to quantify research efforts aimed at DLD compared to other neurodevelopmental disorders.ResultsThe percentage of children who are deemed eligible for clinical services because of DLD continues to fall well short of estimates based on the prevalence of DLD in community samples. The amount of research conducted on DLD relative to other neurodevelopmental disorders remains low. Contributing factors include a lack of awareness of DLD, the hidden nature of DLD, entrenched policies, and the dissonance created when speech-language pathologists must diagnose DLD in school settings.ConclusionsExpanded approaches to supporting children with DLD are required. These might include engagement in advocacy and awareness campaigns; clearer communication with the families we serve and enhanced collaborations with classroom teachers; the implementation of school-based language screenings; participation in policymaking; and the development of service delivery models that operate alongside those that exist in our schools and complement their function.Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12743273

Can visual nudges reduce smoking tobacco expenditure? Evidence from a clustered randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh

AbstractIntroductionA household-level constant visual deterrent advocacy campaign to reduce tobacco intake was conducted in rural Bangladesh.AimsTo evaluate smoking tobacco expenditure by campaign components.MethodsWe conducted a single-blind clustered randomized controlled trial on 630 adult male household heads from 16 chars (riverine islands) in rural northern Bangladesh, between November 2018 and January 2019. Intervention allotment was randomized at the char level to minimize spillovers, with 8 chars in treatment and control groups each. The intervention provided households in treatment chars (n = 323) with two visual warning posters, detailing the health effects of tobacco on oneself and external actors, to be hung inside the household for 4 weeks. Households in control chars (n = 307) received nothing. Reported daily smoking (log) tobacco expenditure values were the primary outcome of interest.ResultsFinal analysis was conducted using 251 and 210 smokers in treatment and control chars respectively. The intervention reduced relative smoking tobacco expenditure by 12.8% (95% CI −31.45 to 5.81) but was not statistically significant (P-value = 0.163). Weak to moderate emotional reactions to the posters was identified as a reason for the statistical insignificance.ConclusionFor a visual anti-tobacco intervention to have a substantial impact, it must induce strong emotional responses.

Testing the impact of images in environmental campaigns

Images are commonly used in environmental advocacy campaigns that are designed to promote collective action. However, the effects of different types of images have rarely been examined. In three experiments (combined N = 1426), we tested the impact of commonly used campaign images (meeting, protest, or no image) on willingness to engage in collective action against coal mining. Further, we examined whether images influence known drivers of collective action. Results support the Social Identity Model of Collective Action in environmental contexts: efficacy, identification and anger were strongly associated with collective action intentions and (less so) behaviour. Identification was the strongest predictor of actual behaviour. The effects of images were inconsistent. Image presence and type sometimes affected collective action responses, either directly or indirectly. The presence of an image sometimes increased perceptions of descriptive norms for action, which in turn increased perceived efficacy and collective action intentions.

The Influence of Business Sector Challenge (BUSAC) Funded Grantees on Sustainability of Policy Advocacy in Ghana

Theoretical development has been outpaced by the practice of policy advocacy by organizations and interest groups. Nonetheless, the relevance of grounding for advocacy campaigns has increased with the need for an understanding of contributions of advocates’ to policy development and accountability. This study therefore evaluates the influence and contributions of organizations and interest groups on the sustainability of policy advocacy with focus on BUSAC Fund. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to satisfy its objectives, where data was obtained through interviews and questionnaire administration. The data was obtained from 50 grantee organizations under BUSAC Fund and 5 officials of the BUSAC Fund sampled by convenience. Findings of the study revealed that the BUSAC Fund as an interest group has greatly influenced and contributed immensely to policy advocacy sustainability in Ghana’s private business sector.Their contributions to policy formulation and implementation has impacted major sectors including the agriculture, industrial and the services sector. It is obvious that in ensuring policy change and sustainability of advocacy, it is important that support and lobbying is effectively undertaken through formidable interest groups and organizations. BUSAC Fund however in the delivery of their mandate has been entangled by challenges such as poor collaboration between stakeholders, low government commitment and inadequate legislative regulatory instruments. Keywords : Business Sector Challenge, Sustainability Of Policy Advocacy, Ghana DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-19-06 Publication date: July 31 st 2020

Futuring a world without disease: visualising the elimination of hepatitis C

ABSTRACT Informed by work on futurity in science and technology studies, we trace how global disease elimination targets perform a world without disease through their translations in visual advocacy campaigns. Treating disease elimination targets and their visualisations as performative, we take the case of hepatitis C elimination to interrogate how futuring practices in public health govern the present and make effects. We focus specifically on how World Health Organization targets in the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis entangle with visual resources produced by the World Hepatitis Alliance NOhep advocacy campaign. Targets and their visual representations in campaigns perform a disease elimination future which is set apart from the present, and yet urges action in-the-now. It enacts global health citizens but separates them from localised experiences of living with, and being cured of, disease. This disease elimination future relies heavily on instrumental rationalities and logics of the present, including the privileging of biomedical technoscientific knowledge, implementation science and global health governance, to the exclusion of other matters of concern, flattening out complexity to perform its certain achievability. These enactments raise political questions about how disease elimination futures might be made in a different mode.

The Implemention of Preventive Drug Education Program Among Public and Private School

The program caters to public and private schools’ needs regarding implementing the preventive drug education program in curriculum and instruction, intervention program and services, learning and development activities, advocacy campaigns, evaluation, and research. The main purpose of this study was to determine the level of implementation of drug education programs among public and private secondary schools in Nasipit Agusan Del Norte. The researchers used a descriptive design comprising the survey method to collect relevant information for the study. Based on the finding, there is no significant difference in the level of implementation of preventive drug education program between public and private secondary schools in Nasipit Agusan del Norte, which were the following; curriculum and instructions, intervention program and services, learning and development activities, advocacy campaigns, and monitoring evaluation and research. The researchers would like to recommend that the public and private secondary schools continue implementing the preventive drug education program in Nasipit Agusan del Norte. Moreover, all personnel in-charge in the drug education program will attend any drug symposium and activities to have proper training: curriculum and Instruction.

4318 A Qualitative Study of Men’s Abortion Attitudes in Restrictive States

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Despite its critical importance in reproductive health, access to abortion care continues to be impeded by laws grounded in religious, political, or other ideologies. We will characterize abortion attitudes among US men who live in areas with restrictive abortion laws using qualitative methods. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We will use a semi-structured interview guide to elicit men’s attitudes about abortion, characterized within moral, legal, religious, political, and other domains. Inclusion criteria include English-speaking cisgender men, ages 18 to 65 who live in states with the most restrictive abortion laws as defined by the Guttmacher Institute. We will recruit participants through Facebook ads and interviews will continue until theoretic sufficiency. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach, transcripts will be coded for emergent themes by two researchers independently in QRS NVivo 12.0, with concurrent refinement of themes as interviews are completed. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We will elucidate emergent themes regarding men’s abortion attitudes which could include how men think of abortion as a medical, moral, or personal reality, why they do or do not support abortion provision, among many other possibilities. We anticipate that researchers can use the data obtained from this study to begin to build a conceptual framework of abortion attitudes among US men who lives in restrictive states. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: This study will fill an important gap in the literature by qualitatively characterizing abortion attitudes among a population that has political influence on abortion access. Results can inform policy and advocacy campaigns aimed at shifting public abortion attitudes towards increased acceptance.

A Chronicle of Change: the Core Values We Cherish

A Chronicle of Change: the Core Values We Cherish

High Price Medicines and Health Budgets: The Role Patients' and Consumers' Organisations Can Play.

Healthcare systems face challenges due to budget constraints, complex therapies, and new treatments for rare diseases. One of the most successful patient advocacy campaigns of all times was initiated by people living with HIV and AIDS in African countries. Facing industry giants, they won court cases allowing governments to ignore intellectual property rights when the price of a medicine was abnormally high. This led to the approval of the international 'Agreement on Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights', which contributed to improving the availability of AIDS treatments for millions of people. Beyond this successful patient advocacy campaign, patient organisations have an important role to play in national discussions on prices of treatments and pharmaceuticals, especially for rare diseases. This article first discusses the specificity of the pricing of orphan medicinal products, and then provides an overview of some of the important actions that can be carried out by patients' organisations.

Changing priorities, hybrid campaigns: interest groups’ perceptions of gains and risks in the new media landscape

Interest groups depend on visibility for political influence and organizational growth. The current hybrid media landscape presents both opportunities and constraints for visibility and influence. For organized interests, if, when and how to use established media involves a continuous evaluation of different media strategies, as well as evaluations of how to best combine media and non-media platforms for efficient, multi-platform advocacy campaigns. Through qualitative interviews with 39 health interest organizations, representing a broad spectrum of group types, resources and access to decision-makers, this study analyses evaluations of the perceived gains and risks associated with media strategies. Although all interviewees value media visibility, their actual access to the established news media varies significantly. In the current media landscape, which is characterized by hyper-competition and hybridity, we find that it is primarily the well-resourced organizations, with storytelling expertise, which gain and prioritize visibility in the established media. Other organizations, independent of other group characteristics, seek visibility by increasingly becoming networked content distributors to bypass established media and target specific publics to promote organizational aims.

A Qualitative Study Exploring Harmful Cultural Practices and HIV Stigma in North Central Nigeria

Harmful cultural practices have psychosocial implications on stigmatization and vulnerability to HIV infection among HIV positive living in North Central Nigeria. To understand this, we conducted qualitative interviews with purposively selected 20 diagnosed HIV positive to explore how culture influences stigmatization and HIV transmission. Data was collected using audio-recorder, transcribed, and analyzed through thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti8 software to code and analyze interview transcripts. The coded data were presented using thematic network analysis to visualize the theme, sub-themes, and quotations in a model. The findings reveal that lack of education was a significant determinant for the continual practice of harmful cultural rites, thereby increasing the risk of HIV infection and stigmatization. Hence, six cultural facilitators have been identified to include female genital mutilation, lack of education, tribal marks and scarification, postpartum sexual abstinence during breastfeeding, sexual intercourse during menstruation, and gender inequality, polygamy, and inheritance law. We conclude that educational teachings and advocacy campaigns be organized in rural schools and public places on the implications of harmful cultural practice to health and psychological well-being. We recommend that the social workers and behavioral scientists should collaborate with other agencies to employ a behavioral-based intervention in eliminating cultural practices and HIV stigma.