Chris Rock said some people have jobs and some people have careers. Those with jobs can’t make the clock move faster. Those with careers can’t find enough time in the day to do everything. Well he was right. I spent the past 10 days working afterhours on a proposal to improve health information translation. Read an excerpt from my proposal below.
Telling Health Stories Better: Journalism’s Role in Laying the Contextual Groundwork for a Healthier America
The emergence of the digital age has provided consumers with access to more health information than they have had in the past. This access has led to the emergence of the Internet savvy patient or e-Patient. The e-Patient researches his ailments online and is equipped to discuss options with his doctor. In fact a 2009 Pew Internet study found 86 percent of people with a disability or chronic illness searched the Internet for health information.A related Pew study shows 80 percent of Internet users look online for health information.
However, access to more health information – when, where, and how consumers want it – doesn’t alone translate into improved health outcomes. The grim reality is that most Americans have not adopted a healthy lifestyle. Roughly 50-60% of adults and 30% of children in America are either overweight or obese. In addition, many of the most common diseases that plague our society stem from poor eating habits and not enough exercise. Heart disease, a preventable condition, is the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States.
The information, in order to have impact on an individual’s health, has to be presented in a way that is reliable, understandable and actionable. Have you read a scientific journal recently? Scientific journals are clearly written for other scientists. The new digital landscape opens up new and exciting opportunities for journalists to engage consumers by explaining the health information that is oftentimes not effectively translated to the public.
Don’t have one? I don’t either. That’s because the topic of health is often very convoluted and quite honestly, boring. There is a new buzz-word in the health communication arena that’s aiming to change all that- “storytelling.” Using basic storytelling techniques can help educate, motivate, and empower people to make informed decisions about their health. “Stories Matter”, an essay by University of Missouri professor Jacqui Banaszynski, is a perfect example of using the storytelling technique on a subject that may be hard to relate to. Banaszynski doesn’t simply write about a famine camp in Sudan. She takes the reader (someone who may never go to Sudan) on a journey with her as she herself for the first time witnesses starvation, desperation and sometimes survival despite it all. This is a technique she uses to draw in and involve an otherwise uninterested and disconnected reader.
There isn’t enough storytelling in health and there isn’t a good enough reason why. Health communication’s goal is to influence healthy behavior choices by providing accurate and useful information, and what better way to influence than through stories?
The storytelling technique used in health can create health information that resonates with the target audiences. Often times in research you find studies devoid of the human element as if people were nothing more than a class, gender, sex or social economic status. Storytelling in health takes the “us vs. them” out of the science by bringing a universality of human connectivity. Banaszynski writes:
“We all grew up with stories, but do we ever stop to think about how much they connect us and how powerful they are? Even, or especially, in the face of death these stories live on, passed from elder to younger, from generation to generation. Events pass, people live and die, life changes. But stories endure.”
How can health communicators write health stories? You can take everyday people and tell their personal experience with health. Let’s take an example of a person dealing with kidney disease and who has to rely on dialysis treatment. Invite the reader into the story by painting a picture of what it’s like to live with this condition. Several trips a week to the dialysis center is non negotiable-it’s a necessity to stay alive. Show the reader what it’s like to spend hours hooked up to a machine designed to do what the body no longer can- cleanse toxins from the body. Through storytelling techniques like this example, health communicators can educate people in the community about kidney disease and steps they can take to ensure a long and healthy life.
It’s widely known in the health field that new discoveries in science and medicine vastly outnumber the actual utilization of this knowledge. Simply put, the information isn’t trickling down to the people who need it most. This disconnect presents a challenge to both health professionals and the public. The huge number of research findings published, disseminated, and reported on daily have to be interpreted by one and understood appropriately by the other.
So dig through the science and medicine and find these stories and provide a human element to them. That’s how people will listen to what you have to say, when you involve them in the story. There are many untold stories in health. These are the kinds of stories that should cross our TV screens, airwaves and web, but mainstream media don’t report on them. Health policy affects the public but we rarely hear about the latest policy issues being discussed in Congress. There’s an opportunity to take these policy issues and ask the public how they feel about them. Shed light on these untold stories, not only for Congress to hear but also to empower the people affected the most with information to make informed decisions about their health.
David Halberstam, author ofThe Best and the Brightestgives this advice to people who want to tell stories: “Telling a good story demands a great conception, a great idea for why the story works-for what it is and how it connects to the human condition. It’s about ideas, about narration, about telling a story. You must be able to point to something larger.”
And what could be larger than a long and healthy life for all?
Because I had no idea it was National Women's History Month. The White House just released a press statement on...umm...March, declaring this proclamation. We are suppose to "honor the women who have shaped our Nation." One such woman, is Lilly Ledbetter, a small town woman who took up a fight with a major corporation, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co, in Gadsden, Alabama. After 19 years of work, Ledbetter was slipped an anonymous note revealing that she had been underpaid all those years. In fact, she was underpaid by 40 percent. Ouch! Of course she sued Goodyear, won more than $3 million, all to have the Supreme Court rule 5-4 against her saying she waited way too long to file her claim. Double Ouch! Although she didn't get any monetary compensation, her story reached millions via the media and brought the issue of wage gap mainstream. Thus, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law on January 29, 2009. Today, I honor Lilly Ledbetter and the many women who stood up (and stand up today) to fight even when they knew the battle would be hard. Happy National Women's History Month!
A study finds that the amount of time kids are spending on entertainment media has risen dramatically. Kids 8 to18 are spending nearly 8 hours on entertainment media, especially minority youth. The percentage of overweight kids in the US is growing at an alarming rate with 1 out of EVERY 3 kids considered obese. Michelle Obama kicked off a national campaign this year called, Let's Move, which is tackingly the obesity problem in kids. How can we use new media technology to leaverage our public health efforts?
Today I am remembering Bloody Sunday, a phrase given to the day on March 7, 1965 when hundreds of men and women were brutally beaten as they marched from Selma to Montgomery for their right to vote.
Can it really be that I've only created one post this year and it's already September?! Reynalinares is real to me and has been on my mind nearly every day so how is it possible that's I've only blogged once this year! Ugh! I suck! I've had so many ideas but never wrote any of them down because it wasn't convenient or because my blasted "real job" got in the way. I may have lost all my readers. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've lost all my readers. ReynaLinares will not give up, though. This blog will push forward with the original intent of focusing on health care policy, media and social issues. Stay tuned..if by some unlikely chance someone is reading this. :(
It hasn't even been a week since the Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency due to the novel strain of Swine Influeza A (April 26, 09). It feels like it's been a lot longer for me since I work in the field of public health and we take this kind of thing seriously. The media is also taking this seriously as they provide constant updates on the swine flu cases in the U.S. and abroad. The name, swine flu, makes for a novel news story. The novel strain - accurately called H1N1 - is of swine orgin, meaning it jumped from swine to human then mutated to transfer from human to human; so it's not correct to call the current virus "swine flu" since really it's no longer a swine flu virus. But hey, sounds exciting and scary in the news and we as humans (not swine) are drawn to exciting and scary. I'm surprised though that media is actually referring to it as H1N1 more frequently, but then again, what the heck does H1N1 really mean to the average non scientist...still kinda scary right? Just picture H1N1 is big print against a black background with doom do doom doom doooooom theme music playing on TV-scary right? I'm not convinced media is undergoing a transformation where being a watchdog for society is now taking front and center stage. I think that if it's going to make a dollar then it's going make the news. Plan and simple, it's about the ratings folks and H1N1 is MONEY!!!!
Health and health care issues don't make the news, according to a recent study by The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Can we say duh? You don't need a study to tell you that health care issues was never big news. It's one of the biggest concerns among the public but doesn't get the attention it deserves in the media. So the study said health care made up less than four percent of all news from January 07-June 08 and mostly focused on specific diseases and conditions. News about health policy and the health care system had the least coverage. This study reminds me of my initial purpose for starting a blog was to cover health policy issues and explore why media don't cover certain stories. I might make it a separate blog from this altogether but think this blog is pretty cool even though the stories are sporadic. I'm going to think about it a bit.
I called my sister yesterday to tell her gas in Atlanta was over $4. "That's more then here!" she exclaimed, saying that gas in Palo Alto, California, where she lives, was roughly $3.60. Right now Atlanta’s gas prices are over the national average but that’s not the least of our worries. To quote Atlanta Chevron station manager, Mohammed Hussain, “We Ain’t Got No Gas Here!" And it certainly feels that way as you drive pass station after station with plastic bags over the gas nozzle of every single pump. Every day for the pass two weeks gas shortages in Atlanta have been the big story. Luckily for me there is a free shuttle service I use to get to work so while the stories in the news about hunting for gas seemed awful with the hour long waits, the fist fights that break out and angry drivers blaring there horns, I wasn’t really affected by it. The last time I had to get gas was right before Hurricane Ike hit land earlier this month. I filled my 23 gallon, gas guzzling truck at $3.55. Later that day, the price had gone up to $4.00 and the lines at the pump where 4 and 5 cars deep.
But this isn’t really my story here. My story is that last night I finally felt the pain and it was awful! I figured I’ll try to get gas late at night where I figured the lines would be shorter. Boy was I soooooooo wrong! And I say “sooooooooooo” wrong because it was THAT bad! The lines were no longer 5/6 car deep, the line went out the parking lot and down the street about three blocks and we were stopping and going so frequently that I don’t think we were moving at all-if that makes sense. I was with my friend that night and we sat in line for an hour. I went from, “Wow, this is crazy,” to kicking my shoes off and propping my feet on the dash board to rolling down my window to see if I could catch a glimpse of the gas station to finally yelling out the window every time a car tried to cut the line. We finally moved in sight of the gas station only to determine that it looked like we would be in line for another hour or two because the line didn’t go right into the station but looped around first before you could make it inside. My nerves started to get the best of me after not moving an inch in 15 minute period. As we moved toward an intersection, a car in front of us refused to move. “Look man, I know we aren’t supposed to block intersections but in a time like this, get the hell on!” I yelled. Not budging, my friend starts honking the horn and baring up on the small car. “Push that car into the intersection”, I said encouragingly. I knew I sounded crazy but somehow crazy seemed appropriate in this situation. We saw cars trying to circumvent the line by cutting through a nearby plaza which made us even more furious. “That’s so not fair!" I exclaimed. “That’s so rude if they are really cutting the line like that.” I think I was hoping they just realized they were in the wrong line and were trying to get pass this ridiculously long line to the gas station. I knew my wishful thinking was futile. Another car tries to edge in front of us from the intersection. “Hey, man,” I said with my window rolled down. “You can’t just be trying to cut the line like that, we all are sitting here trying to get gas. You just can’t do that.”
Ten minutes pass 9:00pm and 70 minutes in line, I said screw it let’s go. I can’t wait in this line anymore-my odometer hovering at less than a quarter of a tank. My friend gave me a look as if saying “You know we pull out there’s no turning back?” “Let’s do it,” I said as we pulled out of line probably at the disbelief of the 20-30 cars behind us. This morning I got gas around 5am at a lone gas pump among yellow bagged pumps. Later that morning around 10am I went out and saw a repeat of what I experienced last night and what we in Atlanta have been experiencing for over two weeks now. Things are not expected to get better for another week or two. Oil refineries were shut down for a period of time due to the hurricanes but while gas is still coming in the city masses of people in fear mode are rushing to the stations subsequently depleting a whole gas stations reserve in a couple of hours. When the housing bubble popped last year, we kept hearing that it was going to get worse before it got better. You don’t say.
Bristol Palin, 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin will make her out-of-wedlock pregnancy official by marrying her "baby daddy." A self proclaimed "f--kin' redneck," 18-year-old Levi Jonhnston and his fiance are now the poster couple for shotgun weddings.
Democractic Presidential nominee Barack Obama won't be taking advantage of this situation saying "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. But is Bristol's indiscretions really off-limits? Doesn't her situation speak to the larger issue of teenage pregnancy in this country? Family Values? Education? Would she be marrying Levi Johnston, her "baby daddy" if her mother was not McCain's running mate?
The Obama camp may have decided not to press these issues but that doesn't stop the rest of the world from exercising our freedom of speech. It'll be interesting in the coming days to see how this story develops in the media. My guess is that it will not be off limits in the Obama camp for long and certainly not in the media.
"Yes We Can!" Never before has that phrase meant so much to so many. And never before have I felt a sense of pride for my country. Barack Obama's Democratic National Convention speech proved for me what Obama has been saying all along. Only in America is his story even possible. That an African American man would be standing on a stage in front of tens of thousands of supporters with a 50 percent chance of being this nation's next president. That is unbelievable to me and mostly it is inspiring. Inspiring because African Americans have been proving since they were brought to this country that they are capable of overcoming the most extreme obstacles set before them. That despite the most dire of situations, African Americans can and will thrive! Obama is not a spokesperson for black America, he is a champion of all people who want more for themselves like accessible and affordable health care, equal wages for men and women and educational opportunities for all. Never did I think I could be this proud to be an American. To be from a country that says "One nation under God," but so many times acts as if only a certain skin color or socio-economic status matters. I might be infected with this thing Obama calls HOPE, but never before has the word hope meant so much and never before has it felt so good to say Yes We Can and believe in it.
So Joe Biden it is. BarackObama had planned on announcing to the people via text message of his selection for VP but CNN beat him to the punch forcing him to move his announcement up. The network announced just after midnight on Saturday that Joe Biden was indeed on the ticket. Obama followed shortly after with the official word. I'm not surprised at all by Obama's choice for VP, but wouldn't it have been something if he had selected another minority instead of the" same ole old white guy" with more "experience" to balance himself out with his critics? Maybe I'm asking for too much you say? Will Biden help increase Obama's narrow lead over McCain? We can only wait and see.
I just had to post this picture of Michelle Obama on the cover of Ebony Magazine because it is simply stunning! Her style and grace is something to be admired. Whenever I see a cover with the Obamas on it I have to buy it. Even if Michelle doesn't admit it I can taste a little bit of patriotism every time I see one of the Obamas grace a magazine cover or a TV screen. Yes We Can!
My expectations of black men were developed at a young age. My father was the first man I'd ever known. As a child I thought my father was the most powerful and respected man in the world. He was tall and walked with self assurance and purpose. When he talked-people listened. At times living under his roof was difficult, sometimes downright unbearable, but unlike many black men, my father was there. When 8 in 10 black kids grow up without a father that says something about black men. It also says something about black women, but most importantly that statistic says a lot about black future. The August issue of Ebony Magazine features eight different covers; each with a well known black man representing the title of "Black Cool." Inside, are what Ebony refers to as the 25 coolest brothers of all time. I don't normally read Ebony nor am I particularly interested in what seems to be a pretty popular edition featuring cool black men. I read where the Magazine said it was difficult to come to a consensus of who was in fact coolbecause of the subjective nature of the term. The word cool by definition means moderately cold, not warm nor hot. The slang cool means highly skilled, but I don't want my definition of a highly skilled man to be subjective. I want my definition of a highly skilled man to be without a doubt Awesome. By definition Awesome means to inspire awe or characterize by awe. Featured on one of Ebony's August covers is presidential nominee BarackObama. He is Awesome. He is awesome because never has a black man made it as far as he in the political arena. Obama is awesome because he inspires awe in people who have waited too long without hope. Obama represents a future for many in this country who never felt like they belonged to this country or could ever be proud of this country until now. Obama is an Awesome man and I believe there are many more black awesome men. My up coming series called Awesome Men profiles black men who are doing wonders not only for themselves but affecting others in an awesome way. If you know an awesome man that by definition inspires awe or is characterized by awe, please send me some information on this person so that he may be highlighted in my series. It doesn't matter if he's a celebrity or your church pastor, if he is awesome let me know. Stay tuned for this weekend's first edition of Awesome Men right here on reynalinares.
Did everyone watch yesterday's CNN special, Black in America? I didn't because I'm on travel at the Unity Journalism conference in Chicago! I'm blogging for the first time from my blackberry so please excuse typos until I have a chance to clean it up later. I'm in my first workshop about activism and blogging. I'm hoping to learn something. I wonder if they will mention the CNN special? Anyway, a lot of you guys called me or texted me about the show last night.Many of you were upset by the content and brought up a lot of questions. The most important one being who is Black in America? I mean who is really Black? Soledad O'Brien, the host of the show is bi-racial. Who was included in the statistics about black people? Is the one drop rule still in effect? I have so much to say. I'm going to try to tune in tonight for part two but right now I'm wondering why I'm over hearing the panelist for this session say they don't know what they are going to talk about and they could wing it if they have to! Oh, you know I'm going to get my registration money's worth. I'm going to ask tons of qustions so if they are winging they are going to have to wing it hard. My thumbs are cramping up so I need a break from the blackberry. Please send me your comments, let's get the conversation rolling. Stay tuned!
I watched CNN’s Soledad O’Brien host last night’s panel discussion Black in America: Reclaiming the Dream. The discussion focused on topics of concern in the Black community, such as HIV/AIDS, self-responsibility, education, etc. I must say, Soledad is doing the damn thing. She always has, in my opinion, despite being booted off American Morning, CNN’s morning show (John Roberts and Kiran Chetry are now the hosts). I remember when she was an anchor for NBC’s Weekend Today show back in 1999. I was a senior in high school then. I decided she would be my unofficial mentor as I began my broadcast journalism trek. My freshman year at the University of Missouri I emailed Soledad. (I found her contact number on some unofficial website-back then she wasn't the celebrity she is today) not thinking it was really her address I forgot about it. One day, I was just laying around in my dorm room, my roommate, Kim, was on the phone talking to her mother. I remember her telling her mother to hold on because she had another call. I knew the call was for me the way, Kim was talking. “Yes, she is here…who is this?” “Soledad?” I immediately jumped up shouting in a whisper…you know how that goes…mouthing the words SOLEDAD O’BRIEN??!!! Kim, realizing it was indeed THE Soledad O’Brien from NBC’s Weekend Today, clicked over and screamed, “Mom, some famous person is calling Reyna!" "I’ll have to call you back!!!" She hands me the phone and of course I was all calm, like yeah, Soledad is calling me. She really wasn’t at all what I had expected. A little rough around the edges, cursing in nearly every sentence she spoke. I kind of thought maybe she was trying to act young so I just laughed at everything she said and pretended I was a cool young student. I told her I was a freshman at the University of Missouri majoring in broadcast journalism. She told me how hard it was for her starting off as a reporter and how her news director told her she sucked and would never make it. She said people were obsessed with her hair and the fact that she wore a lot of black but she didn’t give a f*Ck (not sure I want to be cursing on my blog yet!). She invited me to come visit her in New York and she would give a tour of the NBC studio. I remember saying in disbelief, “People can just go tour the studio?” “Only people I know,” she said. I was thrilled! I couldn’t believe it, Soledad O’Brien was inviting me to New York and she said she knew me! After that phone call we stayed in touch through my freshman year. I never made it to New York that summer because I had to take summer courses. I remember sending Soledad an email telling her I wouldn't be able to make it that summer, like my being able to make it or not had a huge affect on her life. She emailed me back and said good luck with Pre-Calculus and that I was probably a lot better in math then she was. We didn’t talk again until 2005 when she was in Atlanta for the NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) conference. Of course she didn’t remember me when I told her the story about how she called me back in 1999, but she laughed and said it was nice to finally meet me. She was exactly how I imagined her from the phone and had that same fiery personality. Although, petite in size, Soledad O’Brien, is one of the most self assured women I’ve ever met. I’m looking forward to seeing her again at the Unity Journalists Conference in Chicago this week.
Be sure to catch CNN’s 4-hour documentary entitled Black in America, also hosted by Soledad O’Brien later this week (July 23rd and 24th)
It's hard being a blogger and holding a real job that is. I've tried to sneak a few moments at work(my 9-5) to come up with topics for new posts or to read comments but it's always tricky because after 10 minutes my guilty conscience forces me back to my real work. After all I am getting paid to fight terrorism (that's what I do in my real job). I'll blog on my terrorism fighting job later. I'm still trying to figure out how to go about it without having George Bush and his administration down my back. Ooops, I think just mentioning terrorism, Bush and fighting may have red flagged by blog...oh well not that the Patriot Act doesn't allow "them" to do what "they" want anyway. It's late and I'm really just posting to say that I'm serious about this blog and even if it doesn't look like it now my blog is going to be something great...I'm getting there...please continue to support. Remember you don't have to agree with me just please be aware of what's going on in your world!
Here’s a satirical cartoon from David Horsey, cartoonist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in response to The New Yorker cartoon where Barack and Michelle Obama were depicted as terrorists. This image depicts a wheelchair-bound McCain, slurring “Bomb bomb bomb—bomb bomb Iran,” as his wife Cindy pours pills into her hand saying “Take some of my meds to get through the inaugural parade!)
Horsey, states his purpose for drawing the cartoon clearly, “For all you irony challenged literalists who were upset by The New Yorkers Obama as a Muslim cover, here’s one for you.”
I don’t know about you but I’m no “irony challenged literalist” in fact, Horsey understands my uproar over The New Yorker cartoon quite well. See, back in March Horsey apologized for offending the Jewish community when he originally drew a cartoon depicting two prodigal sons. The first prodigal son’s father accepts his long lost son back while the yarmulke skullcap wearing Jewish father says “Tough luck kid, life is unfair.”
Alan Gardner of the Daily Cartoonist writes:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial cartoonist David Horsey found himself in an uncomfortable situation when one of his cartoons unintentionally offended many of the Jewish faith. The cartoon which ran last Thursday depicts two prodigal sons. The first, representing investment firms returning to a receptive father willing to bail him out and a second an individual home owner who lost his house with a “risky loan” and receives a cold shoulder. The point of contention was that the father was originally drawn wearing a yarmulke - “is a thin, slightly-rounded skullcap traditionally worn at all times by Orthodox Jewish men.” Many felt that identifying the father as Jewish continued the stereotype that Jews are money handlers.
Horsey responds to Jewish community with this:
“I am mortified to learn that a number of people in the Jewish community around the United States read into a recent cartoon a meaning I never intended. While there have been times that folks with an axe to grind have purposely misread my work, in this case I can fully appreciate the cause of concern. It was a complete failure on my part to comprehend how the mix of symbols in my cartoon could summon up historical libels against Jews This seemed to help clarify my intent, but I also realized that one little detail in my cartoon — the yarmulke — had clearly identified the characters as Jews, not as mere ancient residents of the Middle East. It was a dumb, thoughtless, unnecessary addition that was easily remedied.”
