More Than a Message: Framing Public Health Advocacy to Change Corporate Practices

Abstract

Framing battles in public health illustrate the tension in our society between individual freedom and collective responsibility. This article describes how two frames, market justice and social justice, first articulated in a public health context by Dan Beauchamp, influence public dialogue on the health consequences of corporate practices. The authors argue that public health advocates must articulate the social justice values motivating the changes they seek in specific policy battles that will be debated in the context of news coverage. The authors conclude with lessons for health education practitioners who need to frame public health issues in contentious and controversial policy contexts. Specific lessons include the importance of understanding the existing values and beliefs motivating the public health change being sought, the benefits of articulating core messages that correspond to shared values, and the necessity of developing media skills to compete effectively with adversaries in public debate.

Public Health and Media Advocacy

“…Iyengar (18) has found that such episodic news results in audience interpretations that tend to blame the victim, whereas more thematic news helps audiences understand the impact of environments on personal outcomes. In media advocacy, the goal is often to reframe from episodic to thematic frames, which we liken to the difference between stories framed as portraits focused narrowly on individuals or events and those framed as landscapes that can reveal the context surrounding individuals and events (13).…”

Taking Power, Politics, and Policy Problems Seriously

“…27,28 This discursive agreement is required for researchers to generate evidence-based recommendations that are salient to, and executable within, a decision maker's range of action and priorities. A further step is to include government and health system officials directly in the research process either by means (deemed "linkage and exchange" or what some have called "integrated KT").…”

Approaches to Print Media Advocacy for the Control of HIV/AIDS: Case of Cameroon Tribune and the POST Newspapers

“…Decision makers remain the primary targets of every advocacy plan. Civil Society Organizations generally make up the secondary targets while the public constitutes the tertiary targets [11]. In Cameroon, newspapers and magazines are used and consumed mostly by those who make policy (primary targets) and those who pressure for advancements in policy (secondary targets).…”