Background and Purpose
In 2008, the Minnesota state Legislature passed a ground-breaking health reform law that included a provision to address the root causes of poor heath with the aim of reducing quickly rising health care costs. The program, known as SHIP, the Statewide Health Improvement Program, began funding grants to support local community prevention across the state in 2009.  Their focus would be on increasing active living and improving nutrition throughout Minnesota. While the projects were extremely popular in the communities in which they were funded, some members of the legislature questioned the ability of a prevention-oriented initiative like SHIP to cut costs and threatened to not renew the Program’s budget. SHIP administrators wanted to know how SHIP, and the prevention approach that drives it, were covered in Minnesota news. What was said, and left unsaid, in these public conversations. In tandem with the content analysis, SHIP leaders also wanted to provide strategic communications skills to community partners to improve the way program staff talked about their work.  SHIP asked Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) to provide training to program staff on the lessons learned in the content analysis and on message development and delivery. The training also addressed why the findings of the content analysis matter and what communications skills would help SHIP representatives develop to bolster future discussions the importance of this program. This presentation will discuss how other prevention programs can learn from the content analysis and media advocacy trainings provided to the Minnesota SHIP program.

Description
BMSG examined news coverage of the SHIP initiative. The goal was to understand how active living and nutrition issues and the SHIP program were portrayed in the news. This information is important because the news plays a key role in setting the agenda and framing public policy debates, and can influence the financial and programmatic success of public health programming. BMSG also surveyed the communications skills and messages used by SHIP grantees to determine the strengths and weaknesses in their current prevention messages.  Based on the news content analyses and the skill and message assessment, BMSG provided recommendations to the Minnesota Department of Public Health about how local grantees and the State Department of Health can best frame prevention in the given news context. BMSG delivered a series of regional trainings to SHIP grantees and to key Minnesota Health Department staff to help them learn more effective ways of talking about prevention.

Lessons Learned
News coverage is an important component of communicating to policymakers and the public the benefit of SHIP’s investments, and the need to fund them. In the in-depth coverage, news stories discussed SHIP’s work across the three core public health issues addressed by the initiative: increasing physical activity and improving nutrition and reducing tobacco use and exposure. The most prominent theme in SHIP news coverage articulated the future benefits that the program would bring to Minnesota, primarily about how SHIP will bring about important health policy changes to Minnesota, will improve Minnesotans’ health, and will produce healthcare cost savings. Though future benefits are important, it is critical for policymakers to see the present benefits as well. As such, BMSG believes that framing prevention programs in terms of present benefits would be helpful in explaining prevention programs’ importance during periods of intense competition for scarce resources. We also believe that efforts to quantify the policies and programs put in place, and share the powerful stories of youth and adults who benefit from the programs can be valuable pieces of the public narrative to build support for prevention programs. Broadening the voices represented in news coverage can put prevention program allies in a better position to tout the program’s current achievements. Such voices can praise government’s role while not representing the state. Building media advocacy skills can help local residents and program staff maximize opportunities to highlight the many successes the program has already achieved.

Conclusions and Implications
The way advocates talk about the work they do on the ground is critical for continued support of the work itself.  Understanding the power of the media as a vehicle for information is critical to bolster community change efforts.  It is also crucial for advocates to be trained in how to develop and deliver strong messages to people in positions of power to create change and continue support for successful programs. Through this project, SHIP community partners were able to glean essential information and critical skills to make the case for their work moving forward.

Next Steps
The SHIP program was refunded for another year to create healthier communities around the state.  The messaging lessons learned through the media content analysis and the in-person communications trainings will be of continued value as this important work moves forward. We encourage SHIP communications leadership to pass along the important lessons learned to continue this important work.

References

1. News for a Change, Lawrence Wallack et al. Sage Publications.
2. Media Advocacy and Public Health, Lawrence Wallack et al. Sage Publications.

Support / Funding Source
This project was funded by the Minnesota Department of Health, Statewide Health Improvement Program.