Improving how researchers and reporters write about health
The way researchers and reporters talk about health directly influences how policymakers think about it and, more importantly, what they do to promote health. BMSG collaborated with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to create two customized strategic communications trainings, which we delivered to public health researchers and science reporters attending the June 2013 Canadian Science Writers’ Association Meeting in Montreal.
Strategic communications trainings
In the first training, BMSG discussed the role of the news media in shaping community health and helped researchers learn how to engage the media strategically to advance goals. In the second training, BMSG explored health and science reporting from a public health perspective. We helped journalists learn to frame stories in ways that result in more fair and balanced coverage, and understand how asking different questions can provide readers with better context and result in a more complete story.