Sample Answer for NR 506 Week 6: Using the Media Discussion Included After Question
NR 506 Week 6: Using the Media Discussion
NR 506 Week 6: Using the Media Discussion
Given the power of the media, discuss how you would use an opinion editorial, a personal interview, websites, texting, Facebook, Twitter, and/or blogs to influence public opinion relative to your policy priority. What issues about media and electronic social networking do you need to consider? Why?
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A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NR 506 Week 6: Using the Media Discussion
Title: NR 506 Week 6: Using the Media Discussion
Media in Policy Making
The use of media has grown significantly over the last few years (Rudden, 2016). Not only are people using this source for entertainment, but they are also utilizing it as a resource for medical information. Over seventy percent of people in the United States have a social media profile (Rudden, 2016). Healthcare workers should take notice and understand that they are able to implement the use of this type of media for communicating healthcare information (Rudden, 2016). Word of mouth, be that through social media or print publication, is a very effective and quick way to get information out to a target demographic (Rudden, 2016).
With respect to my public policy of childhood obesity, the use of social media could be a great of pathway of sending out my information to the public. I would want to target children and their parents. It is important when presenting information in this context to make it visually appealing to entice the audience (Rudden, 2016). Using pictures and videos would help interest the children while direct content would be more interesting to the adult population. The information being presented, no matter the age bracket, should be easy to understand and direct. When presenting the information, it is necessary to do more than just state the facts about the issue.
Students and families might already understand that obesity is a problem for children as well as adults, but they might not be able to devise solutions to help with the problem. Formulating solutions on their own could be daunting. On the other hand, if they are given specific plans to implement, they could be proactively working on this issue in their personal lives. As medical professionals, and especially in the nursing field, we are charged with being trusted educators that will both inform our patients about the issues and develop ways to solve these problems. Patients are trusting that we are giving accurate and helpful information that they in turn can pass on to someone else. We should direct our patients toward information that is appropriate and correct. The human word can be a very powerful motivator; we should use this concept to our advantage when advocating for a change.
References
Rudden, D. (2016). How to Effectively Harness the Power of Social Media. Audiology Today, 28(4), 22-32.
I agree with you that it is important to make everything “visually appealing” when trying to reach children and even most adults. I must admit that when people post more than a paragraph of words I get bored and stop reading. Sometimes trying to catch anyone’s attention requires something flashy, once you get people’s attention with just one catch phrase then they will be more engaged and incline to read the rest of your policy. For example, posting a picture of a really cute fat cat would bring in the viewers and then you can talk about childhood obesity. I feel like most of the media outlet out there is a gimmick, manipulating news to get people to side one way versus another. As a future FNP, I would probably have colorful pamphlets handy in order to past it out to my patients and their children.
I enjoyed reading your view on social media and policy making. It is true that children would prefer to have a visualization of policy making instead of an actually face to face response, as they are more visual than some adults as you stated. I do believe that our p[patients rely on social media for a lot more than we think. Patients prior to coming to the ED google what they think they may or may not have prior to being seen, and if you diagnose them with anything else they will immediately voice their own opinion on what they believe they have . It’s unreal how much society depends on social media for everything.
We should help our patients to retrieve the most accurate and reliable information in relationship to their health ( Ventola, 2014). Social media can be used to improve or enhance professional networking including education, patient care, patient education, and public health programs (Ventola, 2014).
When social media is used correctly it can offer the opportunity to promote individual and public health, as well as professional development and advancement (Ventola, 2014).
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and Best Practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7), 491–520.
In all honesty, it is one of my biggest pet peeves when people use their social media as a platform to voice their political or religious views. I use social media as a way to keep in touch with family and friends and to stay up to date with new pictures of our children, etc. I think my main frustration with voicing political or religious views on social media is that people will often comment on these and say things that they would never say to the person’s face. I like to say that when it comes to social media people get “keyboard courage” and say things that they would never say in real life.
This is quite frustrating, as it allows people to fight and disagree in an often times uncivilized way that results in name calling and judging. In fact, with the recent gun protests marches going on across the country I have seen many of my “friends” fight over social media in the last few weeks. It’s sad, but almost comical to see grown adults fighting over texts simply because they have different views. I have even had to “un-follow” my husband step mother on social media because her constant controversial posts were irritating. As I mentioned, my only agenda with social media is to see pictures of friends and family and look at funny memes and pictures.
So much of the information that I read, I have to go look it up to see if it is valid information, and a large majority is not. It is frustrating that people post so much information on social media without fact checking their information. The main problem with this is that people then continue to share this information and many people go on believing the information without ever checking into the facts. I am all for sharing articles that are from reputable sources and once I have done my research on an issue.
With that being said, social media is one way to get information out to many people almost instantaneously. I would personally use an opinion editorial where people were expecting someone to voice their opinion, create a blog where people could view, or be a part of a personal interview rather than using a site such as Facebook or Twitter. I think when people attempt to communicate via text the message can often become misinterpreted, so a personal interview would leave the smallest possibility for people to take what was said and turn it around .
The biggest thing I would want to consider would be my audience. I would want to make sure I was directing my information to people who wanted to read this type of information. Flooding your personal social media pages can be a frustrating topic for many, so having this information in an area where people could choose to read it would probably be best. This gives the readers the option to read your information rather than posting it where it constantly shows up on their news feeds.
The most important thing to me about sharing this type of information is to provide facts and a way for someone to quickly check the facts by citing the source. As I mentioned, I am always willing to learn, but I also am not a person who believes information simply because I have read it. I want to see statistics and facts from a credible source. I have seen a few posts on Facebook within the last few weeks that have actually made me laugh. When one person called another out on where they got their information they copied and pasted their sources. One of their sources was Wikipedia. Maybe it’s because I have been a student for so long, but I guess I just took for granted that everyone knew those were not credible sources.
Taking away my personal pet peeve of using Facebook for someone’s platform, because 80% of adult internet users use Facebook (University of Southern California, 2018), it would be a very quick way to get your opinions published to many people very quickly.
I also think that giving pros/cons on both sides of the argument is helpful. It helps to keep the reader’s attention as they will not feel that it is a completely one-sided article. I frequently play devil’s advocate and try to get people to see things from both perspectives. I have found that if I attempt to play devil’s advocate with certain people, they do not like that and like to begin to make personal attacks.
As mentioned, the main issues with using social media are that the information can be shared amount thousands of people within minutes and your name will be attached to it. Also, the author of the content can then be contacted by anyone who has read their information, and are often times attacked by people they’ve never met simply over their beliefs. People gain “keyboard courage” and say things on social media that they would never say to another person’s face. People often attack others on social media based on their beliefs.
Reference:
University of Southern California. (2018). Social media and public policy. Retrieved from https://publicadmin.usc.edu/blog/social-media-and-public-policy/
I try to follow the same rules that I would follow for school to “fact-check” my information. If I read something, I usually go to Google and follow up to see if there are any articles related to that subject from a trusted source. Recently I have seen a lot of interesting posts regarding vaccinations. I have read the articles and then went to the CDC’s website and American Academy of Pediatrics and other websites to see if I can find the same information there. Often times the information is not updated on those sites.
With all of the recent gun control attention on social media, I try to look into that as well. I am a question asker. I always want to know “why?” Therefore, I frequently look up to try to find information to support or discredit the information. This past week I have seen a lot of information on YouTube, facebook, and the news about teenagers snorting condoms.
This seemed odd to me, so I looked it up, only to find that most of these videos are several years old and it does in fact, seem that this is not a new “craze” as the media is making it out to be. This may be a poor excuse, but I am simply pointing out that with social media, people can post anything they so choose and it can go viral without any factual basis. That fact alone scares me, especially since so many people believe everything that they read on the internet. I feel that it is our responsibility to put out factual information that allows people to form an opinion, but as I mentioned previously, sadly I do not feel that that is something that is being done, and I do not anticipate a change anytime soon.
I think one of the most important things to consider when deciding if a source is reputable is the who wrote the information. Especially with the internet being so accessible to patients, they are taking to the internet themselves and self-diagnosing. I know the famous line at work when a patient or family is claiming someone has a certain condition or another treatment would be better is they must have been on WedMD. Information from the Center for Disease Control is going to be more reputable compared to Wikipedia. Websites that end in .org or .edu are going to be more creditable compared to .com sites.
You want to make sure that the author of the source is educated and has correct references for their work too. With healthcare changing every day, you want to make sure your information is up to date and not a source from fifty years ago. As master prepared nurses, this is something that we will need to be evaluating when giving patients information about medications, disease processed, and medical treatments. Patients are going to be trusting when we give them information is factual and correct.
As nurses it is vital for the information we know and share to be reputable. Since the technological advances, online media has increased over the last past decades. Therefore, countless of information is constantly and instantly made available. Due to these advances, it is even more important now to determine if the information is of quality and value. I start with identifying the author to determine if the source is reliable. Credible authors will cite their source to provide an opportunity for others to check the accuracy of their work. When reviewing information, I seek authors who are affiliated with higher education institutions, credible media outlets, or government programs.
I have noticed the information received from these sites meet standards for academic research, which is reliable and trustworthy. I like articles that have been written by experts but also have been reviewed by the author’s peers. This process ensures the information presented has been critiqued for quality and accuracy. Next, I reviewed the date of the source. It is important to know how recent the source is, especially in health care. Since health care continues to evolve at a rapid pace, knowing and sharing the most current health information greatly impact patient health outcomes and nursing practice.
I am glad the topic of up-to-date information was included in the discussion. When I was working on the policy-priority issue paper I spent almost an hour summarizing an article and then realized it was out-of-date. I was frustrated but glad I did not include this information in my paper because it was not the most reliable. I would not feel comfortable if a provider gave me information on healthcare that was almost ten years old because there are so many changes with healthcare advancements.
Customers want the latest and greatest information available. The APA style recommends that to site a source, the source should be reliable and up-to-date (Lee, 2015). A source you can trust is referred to as reliable. Two of the most important indicators are expertise of the author and the place of publication (Lee, 2015). According to APA style writing, foundational works are the only type of source that are alright to use, and they are also considered old (Lee, 2015).
Lee, C. (2015). APA style. Retrieved from https://www.blog.apastyle.org (Links to an external site.)
In the day and age we live in information is able at a touch of a button or even a call due to various social media. Information available and shared isn’t always created equally. Some information presented are from reputable sources and yet others aren’t. “Medical educators and patients are turning to YouTube to teach and learn about medical conditions. These videos are from authors whose credibility cannot be verified & are not peer reviewed. As a result, studies that have analyzed the educational content of YouTube have reported dismal results.” (Desai et al, 2013).
YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, etc are platforms that can be used outside of peer-reviewed research due to the lack of accountability with the evidence obtained or not, such as for entertainment purposes. A few more ways that a source isn’t credible are based on 6 ways (author, date, sources, domain, site design and writing syle). Therefore, for a source to be credible, it must be a peer-reviewed piece of literature that has been actively tested and presented on by researchers multiple of times
Reference
Desai, T., Shariff, A., Dhingra, V., Minhas, D., Eure, M., & Kats, M. (2013). Is Content Really King? An Objective Analysis of the Public’s Response to Medical Videos on YouTube. Plos ONE, 8(12), 1-6. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082469
Evaluating the Credibility of Your Sources. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2018, from https://www.college.columbia.edu/academics/integrity-sourcecredibility
I agree that there can be a wrong way to use social media. Many people use it to rant about something they are not happy about. Social media can be used an educational tool if done correctly. Social media is used by almost every person in our country from the young child to the older adult. We, as healthcare professionals, can take advantage of this and be able to educate a wide group of individuals from very many different places.
Many people live in areas where they do not have healthcare professionals readily available to them. Social media, when used properly, can be used to educate people on current issues and give them solutions as to how to fix those issue. With social media, you can utilize videos, pictures, and other electronic media to help educate certain patient populations. With using social media, patients can access this information at any time of the day and be able to refer back to the information.