Public Health Challenges, Reading Materials

Internet users can give websites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers.

Andy Goodman gives tips for project promotion geared at telling a "good story" about your efforts. If you can't tell a good story about your work, how will you convince others of the news worthiness of your project?

Dr. David Suzuki writes of alleviating poverty while improving the environment. Many of the world's poor heavily rely on natural resources yet they face tremendous outside economic pressures to behave in ways that are not good for the long-term health and productivity of the environment. He reports that a recent publication, "The Wealth of the Poor," says good environmental practices and policies can be wealth-producing.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation produces publications that are available at no cost on their Web site. A sampling of titles:
• A Nation at Risk: Obesity in the United States
• Active Living Diversity Project
• Dynamics of Race, Culture and Key Indicators of Health . . .
• Healthy Places, Healthy People: Promoting Public Health & Physical Activity through Community Design

Third World Majority is a media training and production resource center run by a collective of Filipino and Tamil women "dedicated to developing new media practices that affect global justice and social change through grassroots political organizing". TWM is working with Center for Reflective Community Practice at MIT to develop an on-line digital storytelling space. Highly recommended: their Digital Divide manifesto and story archive (story browsing hint: click on and take your pick). Their web URL says it all: "Culture Is A Weapon".

Interesting summer reading turned up in a recent Poynter column on keeping roles straight if/when the relationship between journalists and their sources begins to evolve. This situation could pertain to small town or tribal journalists, or to reporters covering a beat where over time they might become closer to sources. As author O. Ricardo Pimentel writes, "...the truth is that both people in such a relationship should just lay their cards on the table. Get the ground rules straight...What we're trying to avoid here is any misunderstanding that will sour either a business relationship or a friendship. But both of you should be on the same page about whether it is one or the other." Read more on-line:

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation established the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program at Howard University to honor the legacy of former Foundation Trustee and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and to expand the pool of students of color interested in the field of health policy. The Foundation has created a brochure highlighting the first five years of the Barbara Jordan Scholars Program and profiling the Scholars (college seniors) who have participated in it. Download the 56-page .pdf brochure on-line to see pictures and read more about each Scholar.

The New York Times has published a series of essays on class in America. The Web version includes plenty of multi-media presentation and resources for teachers and students. Of special interest to Sound Partners' colleagues may be the audio-visual essay of two New Yorkers each of whom had a heart attack in 2004. How they were treated and the story of their recoveries is told by the individuals involved. (Free, one-time registration required.)

Local commercial television news has tremendous reach and potential impact on Americans. But the many Americans who get their health and medical news and information from local television news are receiving a distorted picture. Remedies for these ills are well within reach: training, more time, and more effort writes Gary Schwitzer, assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Dr. Ronald J. Glasser's essay in Harper's Magazine July 2004, "We Are Not Immune: Influenza, SARS, and the collapse of public health," gave me the chills and made me wish I didn't have to breath so often. The essay is not available on-line, but worth it to hunt down a paper copy or order a reprint from Harper's Online. He delves into the history of the collapse of public health in the US through neglect, budget cutbacks and just plain wishful thinking. SARS, he writes, hinted at the next disaster and the US health system is not even ready to prevent an influenza pandemic. Scariest quote - "We spend vast sums to lengthen the lives of terminally ill patients by a few days and refuse to make modest investments that would prevent millions of needless illnesses and deaths."