 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Vicki Beck, MS, Hollywood, Health & Society, USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, 8383 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 650, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, 323-782-3315, vbeck@usc.edu
Hispanics and African Americans experience a multitude of health disparities as compared to other groups. These include: lack of access to care, poor delivery and quality of care, and poor health habits and outcomes. Hispanics and African Americans are also at disproportionate risk for being uninsured, which may limit access to timely public health information (CDC Office of Minority Health).
There is potential to address this disparity through the use of mass media, particularly through health storylines in popular television shows, to disseminate health messages. CDC analysis of Healthstyles survey data (Beck & Pollard, 2001) suggests that African American and Hispanic audiences pay closer attention to health content in TV storylines than their Anglo counterparts and are more likely to act on this information. Although there is a great deal of research and evaluation regarding the effects of health storylines on audiences through entertainment education in the international domain (Singhal & Rogers, 1999), similar research and evaluation are not as extensive in the United States.
Therefore, the purpose of this panel is to examine outreach opportunities for educating multicultural communities on critical, timely health issues through popular TV shows; to assess current health content in popular TV shows; to suggest research approaches for measuring the impact of health content in these programs; and to reveal how the entertainment industry targets these same audiences with entertainment programming. The panel will consist of four (4) expert speakers who will address these topics, present data, and offer lessons learned in depth.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Media, Minority Health
Related Web page: www.entertainment.usc.edu/hhs
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.