Unintentional injuries and violence are often highly newsworthy, and media coverage has a profound affect on how communities understand and address these issues. Media professionals have demonstrated strength in humanizing story subjects, elevating overlooked public health problems, and pushing elected officials to take action on headlining issues. However, the pressure of deadlines and limited access to or awareness of public health data or effective interventions can result in stories that leave people feeling hopeless, helpless or unaffected.
Public health can assist the media in contextualizing injuries and violence and provide evidence-based prevention strategies. Compelling, solutions-oriented stories can galvanize community- and systems-level change to address shared risk and protective factors for injury and violence.
The Louisiana Core State Violence and Injury Prevention Program (Core SVIPP) and Tulane University’s Violence Prevention Institute hosted a workshop for media professionals on reporting sensitive, complex topics related to violence and trauma. The workshop taught media professionals how to reframe their reporting to illuminate the driving forces behind injury and violence, highlight prevention strategies, and encourage productive public discourse. Preliminary evaluation results showed that the workshop was well-received, and revealed additional opportunities to build effective relationships between public health and media professionals.
Presenters:
- Chloe Lake, Louisiana Department of Health
- Kristen Sanderson, Louisiana Department of Health
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