Overview:

Unintentional injuries and violence are often highly newsworthy, and media coverage has a profound effect on how communities understand and address these issues. Media professionals have demonstrated strength in humanizing story subjects, elevating overlooked public health problems, and pushing elected officials to take action on headlining issues. However, the pressure of deadlines and limited access to/awareness of public health data or effective interventions can result in stories that leave people feeling hopeless, helpless or unaffected. Public health can assist the media in contextualizing injuries and violence and provide evidence-based prevention strategies. Compelling solutions-oriented stories can galvanize community- and systems-level change to address shared risk and protective factors for injury and violence.

The Louisiana Core State Violence and Injury Prevention Program (Core SVIPP) and Tulane University’s Violence Prevention Institute hosted a workshop for media professionals on reporting sensitive, complex topics related to violence and trauma. The workshop taught media professionals how to reframe their reporting to illuminate the driving forces behind injury and violence, highlight prevention strategies, and encourage productive public discourse. Preliminary evaluation results showed that the workshop was well-received, and revealed additional opportunities to build effective relationships between public health and media professionals.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this webinar, participants will understand:

1. Explain how media coverage of injuries, violence and trauma can help or hurt public health efforts around these issues.

2. Understand how partnerships with media professionals can fit into a shared risk and protective factor approach to preventing and reducing injuries and violence.

3. Assess their agency’s capacity to plan and host a workshop for news media professionals in their community, region or state based on available resources, budget, and time.

Presenters:

• Chloe Lake, Health Education & Communications Coordinator, Louisiana Department of Health

• Kristen Sanderson, Prevention Initiatives Coordinator, Louisiana Department of Health

Continuing Education:

This self-study training is designated for: (1) Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and/or Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) to receive up to 1.0 total Category I continuing education contact hour, and (2) for professionals with a Certificate of Public Health (CPH) to receive 1.0 CPH Recertification Credit.

Continuing education credits are offered for this training for Safe States members. These include credits for individuals who are Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Certified in Public Health (CPH). 

Training Instructions

To complete this training, you will need to:

1. Participate in the training by accessing the Recorded Webinar
2. View Powerpoint slides: You’ve Got a Friend in Media – SafeStates 2019
3. Create your Certificate of Completion.

If you encounter any technical difficulties related to this training, please contact the Safe States Alliance at info@safestates.org or (770) 690-9000.