Mass Media Interventions

Audiences, however, are more active than usually assumed and mass campaigns should be appropriately used as legitimate spaces for debate of social issues at the science–policy interface.

Abstract

Mass public health campaigns aim at channeling the power of the media toward the public good, ensuring adequate exposure of the target audience. Public health practitioners should learn how to harness the power of the different media and to successfully compete in a contested environment. The quality of news reporting in medicine is largely determined by medical journals, research, and health-care institutions as well as by individual scientists competing for visibility, funding, and profits. Audiences, however, are more active than usually assumed and mass campaigns should be appropriately used as legitimate spaces for debate of social issues at the science–policy interface.