Creating a Media Pitch to Influence Fellow Nurses, Policy Makers, and the Public

Teaching Strategy Description:

In the course Canadian Healthcare: Public Policy Making, the final assignment is a 2-minute presentation using multimedia (video and audio) called “Moving Policy Forward: Media Pitch.” Students, working in groups, are asked to choose a broad topic that relates to the health of Canadians. Examples include, poverty (i.e. living wage), post-secondary education, childcare, transport, and environment. Students consider the historical, political, economic and social context and research as well as existing local, national and international programs and policies that address this issue. They determine key stakeholders and consider how they will reach those people and groups. The purpose of this final assignment is to develop a creative and effective message that influences those that will be influenced by the policy and those who would be most helpful in advancing the policy. The message should be short, simple, clear and compelling and include statistics and an action message. Previous students have applied this assignment to their population health promotion projects. Their work has been adopted by our agency partners to support their advocacy work. An example is the Simon Fraser Living Wage policy campaign which has posted our students’ media pitch on the front page of their website.

Teaching Context:

• Health Policy course

Resources:

Free/open source resources for developing podcasts/videos are also shared with students.

 

Submitted by: Meridy Black, Caroline Brunt, Dee Duncan, Kathy Fukuyama, Marg Hawkins, Elaine Jones, and Shari Laliberte, Vancouver Community College.

Indicator(s): 5.2, 5.4