Assignment:
Media Advocacy Kit
For this assignment, you will develop a comprehensive media kit. Your media kit should be comprised of five pieces, each piece corresponding with a numbered step below. Follow the steps to complete individual pieces of the assignment.
Instructions:
1. Research
a. Determine an issue that you'd like to focus on.
b. Review relevant data. Review any current legislation related to this issue.
c. Provide a synopsis of key findings and cite your sources according to APA format.
d. Determine what gap(s) exist and the policy proposal you'd like to make.
2. Policy Proposal
a. Develop a proposed policy on a national, state, or city level.
b. Identify resources needed for implementation of your policy.
c. Discuss consequences of non-compliance.
3. Fact Sheet
a. Based on data and current policies, create a fact sheet designed to inform legislators and the public.
4. Phone Script
a. Develop a phone script for policy makers with the goal of advocating for your proposed policy.
5. Letter to Editor
a. Develop a letter to the editor to advocate for your policy.
Submission
• Combine the five files saved above into a single document with appropriate section headings.
Also,
For this assignment, you will need to select a public health issue that you would like to discuss in your Media Advocacy Kit. As a major part of the project, you will need to create a policy proposal for this public health issue at either the local, state, or national level. Remember, your media advocacy materials (i.e., letter, fact sheet, phone script) should all reflect the level of government where the policy will be implemented. For example, if you are targeting a state-level policy, you must use state data as your primary information in your kit. I encourage you to reference back to the data sources I shared with you earlier this semester, as these may be helpful for this assignment too.
Advocacy is an important part of health education and public health. NCHEC has included advocacy as one of the seven areas of responsibility for health educators, and public health professional organizations, including APHA and SOPHE, include advocacy as a major component of their work. Below, I have included links to a Health Promotion Practice article about advocacy for health educators, sometimes referred to as "Advocacy 101," as well as the link to the APHA and SOPHE advocacy web pages. These web pages include helpful information, including policy statements and information about advocacy in public health.
• Advocacy-101.pdf
• APHA
• SOPHE
Finally,
You will create a one-page fact sheet using Word, Canva, Adobe Spark, or another platform that presents important information and statistics about your health issue. Your fact sheet should also emphasize the changes in health status/outcomes if the policy is implemented. Remember, throughout the assignment, your data sources and information should target the level of influence for the proposed policy (i.e., local, state, national).
Here are a few helpful links for the Fact Sheet portion of the assignment. The first link is for the Community Toolbox, which is a helpful source for health education and promotion practitioners. You may also want to bookmark this page to help study for comps - there are nice summaries and examples using PRECEDE-PROCEED, theory, and health communication tactics on the website. The other links include tips for creating fact sheets and examples of fact sheets on various health issues.
• Community Toolbox: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest/fact-sheets/main
• How to Create a Fact Sheet:
• https://www.kent.edu/ctl/fact-sheets
• https://ruralhealth.und.edu/communication/factsheets
• Example Fact Sheets:
• https://ruralhealth.und.edu/publications/rural-health-factsheets