Mod 7 - Health Advocates

Question 1

Qualities that make an effective advocate

Answer 1

• Empathy, compassion
• “System” mastery / proficiency
• Patience, persistence
• Some qualities more intrinsic than others

Question 2

Advocacy vs Lobbying

Answer 2

• Advocacy is not something people get paid a lot to do
• Lobbying is a form of advocacy done for money

Question 3

4 Layers of Strategy for Developing Effective Media Advocacy Campaigns

Answer 3

1. Overall strategy
2. Media strategy (based on appropriateness of overall strategy)
3. Message strategy
4. Access strategy (how to attract news attention)

Question 4

Overall strategy

Answer 4

• What’s the problem or issue?
• What’s the solution or desired outcome?
• Who has the power to make the change?
• Who has to be mobilized to apply pressure?

Question 5

Media strategy

Answer 5

• Strategic use of mass media to advance public policy by applying pressure to policymakers
• Differs from traditional public health campaigns

Question 6

Message strategy

Answer 6

• What is said to the target audience
• Identifies the message, messenger, and target audience
• Clear, consistent, concise as possible

Question 7

Special case of news frames in the context of message strategy

Answer 7

• Hard to nicely fit a public health issue within a news frame
• Still keep it as simple as possible
• “Every time there is a story about ___, there should be info about ___.”
• Problem and solution

Levels of a message:

1. Appeal to value/fairness
2. Problem/Issue
3. Solution/policy

Question 8

Access strategy

Answer 8

• Monitor the news
• Build relationships with journalists
• Pursue newsworthiness
• Piggyback on timely happenings