NR 506 Week 6 Discussion, Using the Media

Week 6: Using the Media . Given the power of the media, discuss how you would use an opinion editorial, a personal interview, websites, texting, Facebook, Twitter, and/or blogs to influence public opinion relative to your policy priority. What issues about media and electronic social networking do you need to consider? Why? Dr. Myers and class, Using social media to promote a new policy priority can be highly beneficial, since the vast majority of the population uses social media of some sort in this modern age. However, using social media for the promotion of new policies can be very tricky and can potentially open up a whole new set of issues. Social media provides a very unique opportunity for people to voice opinions without always having the natural consequences for what they are saying. This can get out of hand rather quickly, which can potentially lure the reader’s attention away from the original importance and meaning of the issue being promoted. This means that if someone is going to use social media to promote a policy priority, plenty of discretion and wisdom would need to be used to accomplish this (Korda & Itani, 2013). For this reason, I believe that it is extremely wise to use several different types of media, including opinion editorials, interviews, blogs, etc. in order to promote new policies or changes to former policies. Each approach, regardless of what it is, would need to be used in a manner that is highly professional and the post or article would need to be edited and proof-read by several trusted and trained individuals before being published. The article or post would also need to be succinct and to the point, but at the same time, be able to cover as many issues and potential questions as possible, so that the reader is reading the answers to their own questions as they go. For any personal interviews, practice sessions would be highly beneficial in order to prepare for all possible questions and issues regarding the policy that could possibly come up during the interview. Reference Korda, H. & Itani, Z. (2013). Harnessing social media for health promotion and behavior change. Health Promotion Practice, 14(1), 15-23. Doi: 10.1177/ PEER RESPONSE Lauren and Jackie, What great points both of you make regarding social media etiquette, consequences, and professionalism. There have been so many times when I would see an article posted and would think, “Oh, wow, I had not heard this. I should share it!” Thankfully, I always am hyper-vigilant about making sure that everything I share is coming from credible sources, no matter what the topic might be. This has saved me from lessening my own credibility as a healthcare professional, as you were mentioning, Jackie. It is also important that, as healthcare professionals, we are very careful with how we comment on healthcare-related topics. I have seen many well-meaning healthcare professionals say things and make comments on posts that, because of the way they said it or the “references” they used, made them look ridiculous, quite frankly. We have to be so incredibly careful so that we are always viewed as a credible source of accurate and valid information. Thank you for your posts! I really enjoyed reading them. Krysta INSTRUCTOR RESPONSE Dr. Myers, You are absolutely right, Facebook can be incredibly valuable in getting a lot of information out to the general public very quickly. Just like you said, however, once it is out there, it cannot be taken back, even by deleting it. A trail is always left of some sort. And once an idea or campaign really takes off and goes viral, there is really no taking it back. This can be a very positive thing, since we are wanting to get information out quickly; but if it is the wrong information or if it is presented in the wrong manner, it can have the exact opposite effect and can actually be damaging to whatever cause it was. This means we must be very careful and make sure that our information is accurate and presented correctly, because when it goes viral, the impact can potentially be felt globally (Bik & Goldstein, 2013). Reference Bik, H.M. & Goldstein, M.C. (2013). An introduction to social media for scientists. PLoS Biology, 11(4). Doi: 10.1371/.