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Villanova Experts Reflect on the 2010s
The iPad. Hurricane Sandy. Affordable Care Act. #MeToo. Brexit. Streaming services. Since 2010, there have been so many memorable and historic events that have shifted culture and society into unfamiliar territory around the world. Two Villanova experts have put together thoughts on a few of the decade's top stories that will continue to be relevant for the next ten years—and beyond. Stephen Strader, assistant professor of geography and the environment Over the last decade we have seen the issue of anthropogenic or human-induced climate change shift from something discussed between select, interested scientists to the front page of the news on a daily basis. This dramatic change in the importance and coverage of climate change makes complete sense given six of the last ten years globally have been in the top ten warmest on record. Actually, it's very likely, if not certain, that the last five years will be the hottest globally on record. The odds of that happening naturally are very close to zero. Nowhere have the effects of a changing climate been realized more so than in the western United States, where wildfires have wreaked havoc year after year in the 2010s. States such as California, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Washington all experienced record-breaking wildfires over the last decade. Specifically, the Camp Fire in 2018 became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, destroying 18,000-plus homes and killing 85 people in the town of Paradise. Additionally: Hurricanes Dorian, Irma, Harvey, Maria, etc. damaged entire countries (Puerto Rico and Bahamas) so much that there is question whether they will ever recover from the effects. The deadliest tornado season on record occurred in 2011, including the devastating April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak and the deadliest U.S. tornado in modern history, which struck Joplin, Missouri (158 fatalities). Between 2011 and 2017, drought and water shortages impacted the western U.S., with California seeing its worst drought in history (or worst in 1,200 years). The drought killed 100-plus million trees and resulted in water shortages that affected crops and caused municipalities to limit water use. Record-setting rainfall and floods occurred in locations such as Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, etc., resulting in hundreds dead and millions of dollars in crop losses. If the last 10 years have taught scientists, climatologists, policy makers and the general public anything, it's that we have our work cut out for us if we are to reverse this trend of increasing disasters around the world. The atmosphere continues to warm, and all model projections point to a progressively warmer future Earth if action is not taken. And this action can't be tomorrow or by 2025, 2050 or some other arbitrary year; it has to happen now if we want to reduce future economic and societal losses. Yes, it's easy to be afraid and fearful of the future when all we see as scientists and citizens are rising temperatures, deadlier disasters and a lack of drastic climate action. However, we can't let this fear result in crippling inaction; we have to let it motivate us to fight, not for just our futures but our children's, grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's futures. Let's give them a chance to see the world the way we used to: beautiful. Jerusha Conner, associate professor of education and counseling The latter half of this decade witnessed a resurgence of student activism, sparked by Black Lives Matter protests and the dramatic events at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2015. Highlighting 2015 as a pivotal year for student activism, the authors of the American Freshman National Norms survey deemed the 2015 freshman class "the most ambitious" group in 49 years of the survey's administration in terms of their expectations for participating in protests, connecting to their communities and influencing the political structure; and the numbers of freshmen who report having participated in demonstrations as high school seniors has ticked up every year since. In my own research with college student activists in 2016, I found three striking trends: Nearly half came to college already seeing themselves as activists; only 10% consider themselves single-issue activists (with more than half identifying seven or more issues their activism addressed); and a significant share were not protesting their own institution's policies or practices, but instead concerning themselves with broader social and political issues. They are what I call "outward-facing activists," who use their campuses to stage and mobilize campaigns, rather than as the targets of their change efforts. In the last couple of years, we have seen activism among high school students take off, as students have staged walkouts and school strikes to protest inaction on climate change and gun violence. Although these movements may appear narrowly focused on a single issue, the students involved have intentionally advanced an intersectional perspective, which draws attention to the racialized, economic and gendered dimensions of the multifaceted problems they are seeking to address. Digital natives, these young people have deployed the affordances of social media not only to mobilize their peers in large-scale collective action, but also to attract and sustain the attention of the media, pressure business leaders and politicians and shape public understanding of the issues. One interesting shift with this generation of student activists is that, rather than turning their backs on the system or seeking to upend it, they are focused on enhancing voter registration and turnout, especially among young people. And their efforts appear to be working. Youth turnout in the 2018 midterms was double that of 2014, and record numbers of youth are continuing to register to vote. As the decade comes to a close and the 2020 campaign season revs up, the engagement of student activists in electoral politics will be important to continue to track.
Optimizing Expertise in the Higher Education Sector: Southern Utah University
Higher education institutions are amongst the wealthiest knowledge-based organizations when it comes to expert resources. While many of these organizations acknowledge the value of their in-house experts, they often struggle to harness their expertise and communicate their strengths to external audiences. But when higher education institutions do take steps to market their expertise, the payoff is exponential. Here’s how Southern Utah University (SUU) leveraged expertise marketing to celebrate their staff, grow their digital presence and drive close to a 10x increase in media inquiries. Embracing Expertise SUU has been acknowledged as a leading university in the U.S. Most recently, the U.S. News and World Report’s 2019 Best Colleges list ranked SUU as one of the top Regional Universities in the West and the highest-ranked public school in all of Utah. Southern Utah University President, Scott L. Wyatt, attributes these accolades to the people within his organization: “Our faculty and staff have dedicated themselves to creating the best educational experience at Southern Utah University,” said Wyatt. “This recognition acknowledges their success and the wonderful learning community they have created!” In fact, SUU is so proud of their people that their initial motivation for expertise marketing was to show their experts exactly how much they were valued. SUU’s faculty and staff bring a wealth of expertise in their professional disciplines, but they’re also deeply immersed in the university’s culture and surrounding environment – including the region’s breathtaking national parks. With this in mind, SUU set out to celebrate their experts’ professional and personal achievements through expertise marketing. Optimizing Expert Content While SUU had expert content on their website, they didn’t have a great process for structuring, organizing and publishing. “We had an Expert Directory, but it just didn’t have background structure we needed to nimbly change profiles and deliver up-to-date content,” said Kenzie Lundberg, Internal Communications Specialist at SUU. ExpertFile’s Platform gave SUU the tools they needed to manage their content, but they still needed a bit of help optimizing their expertise marketing program. They reached out to our customer success team to see how they could better leverage the ExpertFile tool and implement best practices for expertise marketing. After auditing their digital presence, we identified three main areas for SUU to focus on: Showcasing Faculty with Relevant Stories: While SUU had some expert content on their website, it wasn’t structured in a user-friendly way. ExpertFile suggested that Spotlight posts would help them make their content more accessible and encourage audiences to get in touch with their organization. Unlike a standard blog post, ExpertFile’s Spotlights enable users to connect with experts or media relation teams directly from the post while simultaneously distributing the post to the Associated Press, Dejero and ExpertFile Search. By using Spotlights in multiple areas of their website, SUU would be able to drastically improve their visibility and gain better traction with media outlets. Highlighting Specialized Areas of Expertise within SUU: SUU used the ExpertFile Platform to organize and attribute areas of expertise in their expert profiles, but our audit revealed that the topics needed to be more specific to garner audience engagement. ExpertFile recommended that SUU add areas of niche expertise to their expert profiles. For example, a biology professor might list topics like “Invertebrate Evolution” or “Cardiovascular Physiology” in addition to the term “biology.” This optimization would make it easier for audiences like journalists and media outlets to find experts on specific topics. Expanding SUU’s Digital Footprint: One of the key advantages of the ExpertFile Platform is how easy it is for organizations to improve their digital presence. For example, the ExpertFile Design Lab allows marketers to quickly create, publish and manage Expert Directories and Spotlights across various pages on their website (click links for examples). To help SUU better utilize this feature, we suggested linking to their Expert Directory and Spotlights directly from the homepage. This would make it easier for audiences to find their expert content and increase opportunities for engagement. SUU’s Results SUU took the ExpertFile Customer Success team’s advice and their results reflected just how valuable expertise can be to the bottom line. From Q1 in 2018 to Q1 in 2019, SUU went from 3,030 views and 12 media inquiries to 11,949 views and 115 media inquiries. And their success didn’t end there. SUU’s latest analysis of their expertise marketing program revealed some truly impressive results: CALmatters Feature: David Berri, professor of economics, was requested for an interview on equal pay in sports in September 2018. From the interview and stories that followed, SUU received the equivalent of $112,500 in publicity value and 25.3 million unique views. The State Journal Feature: Michael Mower, executive director of SUU Aviation, was asked to be featured in a story highlighting SUU’s partnership with Marshall University in March 2019. The story was published on The State Journal’s website and had the potential to be seen by 800,000 unique visitors. Qualtric’s X4 Conference: Ravi Roy, assistant professor of political science, was asked to join the ranks of the visionaries and leaders behind the world’s most iconic organizations and present at the 2019 X4 conference. Other presenters included President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Sir Richard Branson. Over 15,000 people attended the conference. “I really enjoy using the ExpertFile Platform,” said Lundberg. “It’s great that I’ve been able to learn about our experts’ backgrounds – we have some really fascinating people. It’s so unique to be able to see all of their talents and to be able to highlight that for them.” Kenzie Lundberg – Internal Communications Specialist SUU The team at ExpertFile is thrilled that SUU has seen so much success from the optimization of their expertise marketing program. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for their organization and their experts. Download the Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing For a comprehensive look at how expertise marketing benefits the entire organization and drives measurable return on investment, follow the link below to download a copy of ExpertFile’s Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing: The Next Wave in Digital Strategy or download one of our tailored Guides for Corporate & Professional Services, Higher Education Institutions, Healthcare Institutions or Association & Not-for-Profits.
In this Era of Fake News and Alternate FactsExperts are King
There’s nothing new about fake news. Satirical media outlets such as The Onion have been around for a decade giving us a good laugh. But somewhere in the past 12 months, something changed for the worse. The wool that was being pulled over people’s eyes wasn’t so obvious anymore. Satire and bad humour were replaced by visceral accusations, conspiracies, and smear campaigns. How did we get to this point, and what can be done to stem the tide? A sure sign that we had a problem was a development that was apparent in the last presidential election. New voices were on the national scene branding our traditional media outlets as biased, and elitist. We saw the phrase “mainstream media” become a bigger part of the conversation. Now we have to contend with “fake news.” Unlike traditional journalism fake news outlets deliberately spew wrong information. In an effort to get a story out, mistakes will happen. But in the world of fake news there is no retraction or correction of these mistakes — even when they are exposed as blatantly untrue. Further damage ensues when social media then acts as an enabler as fake news articles get amplified to millions of people, who are clicking away, feeding advertising revenues to these publishers. No matter what your political stripe or where you stood regarding the recent US election, fake news was rampant on both sides spreading false information, invoking anger, and deceiving the public. More recently, a fresher version of fake news has emerged as “Alternate Facts.” A term made famous by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway as she defended the statements made by Press Secretary Sean Spicer who lectured and insisted that the crowd present for President Trump’s swearing-in was “the largest audience ever to It seems that the whole nature of the game has changed almost overnight. Even the White House press gallery isn’t immune to these developments. This week’s Saturday Night Live sketch brilliantly sums up the aversive relationship that we’re seeing develop between the media and the new administration. (Note: For the record, the photo at the bottom is NOT a C-SPAN broadcast. It’s a comedy sketch. It did not really happen. This is NOT Sean Spicer in the photo below — it’s an actor portrayal). Perhaps most ironic for me is how believable fake news can appear to be. A friend of mine, a former investigative journalist commented that “given the outright absurdity of the actual “real” news cycle,” it’s getting hard for people to sort fact from fiction.” Perhaps this says as much about society as it does about media. So Where Does All This Leave Us? Some say the solution is as simple as removing the bias from our news media. The problem is, I know quite a few (real) journalists and they are serious about reporting facts. They work in newsrooms and report the news, they tell stories, but gathering and checking facts are what define them. As they work to a set of professional standards and deliver real information. However, we’re witnessing a massive change in the way that ideas are shaped and communicated to the public. Sadly, the traditional avenues of information flow and the mutual respect that even democratic nation states have had with the media appears to be eroding. There is also a disturbing undercurrent of thought that traditional news organizations are biased, and every outlet is always serving a hidden agenda. Recent events have prompted the need for news organizations to brief their journalists on how to govern themselves in these very “interesting times.” John Daniszewski, Vice President for Standards for Associated Press in a recent blog post called for clarity regarding the definition of the so-called “alt-right.” “We should not limit ourselves to letting such groups define themselves, and instead should report their actions, associations, history and positions to reveal their actual beliefs and philosophy, as well as how others see them,” writes Daniszewski. Other news organizations are looking at recent events and taking the opportunity to internally brief their journalists. In a recent message to staff, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote about covering President Trump the Reuters way: “The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, that’s all it’s been!) have been memorable for all — and especially challenging for us in the news business. It’s not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth” or that his chief strategist dubs the media “the opposition party.” It’s hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration. So what is the Reuters answer? To oppose the administration? To appease it? To boycott its briefings? To use our platform to rally support for the media? All these ideas are out there, and they may be right for some news operations, but they don’t make sense for Reuters. We already know what to do because we do it every day, and we do it all over the world. To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. We don’t know yet how sharp the Trump administration’s attacks will be over time or to what extent those attacks will be accompanied by legal restrictions on our news-gathering. But we do know that we must follow the same rules that govern our work anywhere.” Adler goes on to provide a set of rules for the Reuters team that I think are very wise, especially given the current environment. Do’s: Cover what matters in people’s lives and provide them the facts they need to make better decisions. Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one. Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources. Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us. Keep the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles close at hand, remembering that “the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved.” Don’ts: Never be intimidated, but: Don’t pick unnecessary fights or make the story about us. We may care about the inside baseball but the public generally doesn’t and might not be on our side even if it did. Don’t vent publicly about what might be understandable day-to-day frustration. In countless other countries, we keep our own counsel so we can do our reporting without being suspected of personal animus. We need to do that in the U.S., too. Don’t take too dark a view of the reporting environment: It’s an opportunity for us to practice the skills we’ve learned in much tougher places around the world and to lead by example — and therefore to provide the freshest, most useful, and most illuminating information and insight of any news organization anywhere. Winning back the public trust — Why Experts Matter Perhaps a way to help reverse this trend is to ask more of our experts within our organizations, and get them to contribute more to these important conversations. It’s about getting our academics, physicians, professionals, and leaders in their respective fields to contribute more to help the media present a more balanced set of perspectives in ways that engage the public. In this new era, it appears that many experts are invisible to the media on a range of big issues such as climate change, economic data, security, crime and healthcare policy. Opinions — not always informed opinions — are taken as fact. People without qualifications are being asked to speak on topics that require years of study, research, and experience. This is why, now more than ever, we need to see a return of intelligence and knowledge to present true facts. Credible Experts Matter Credible sources are vital in helping ensure the proper degree of research has been done. Published work, peer-reviewed studies, as well as policy that has been developed and practised all play key roles in determining an actual expert. Proven credibility cuts through rhetoric. It promotes the delivery and flow of facts as opposed to feeding only one side of a debate. Being Approachable Matters We have to agree that the current sentiment that many have toward traditional institutions and their experts is that they are not providing enough practical information of benefit to the public. The term “ivory tower” comes up frequently to describe environments such as universities and think tanks. While we need these environments of intellectual pursuit they cannot be seen as disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life. Transparency Matters Do you know where your information is actually coming from? The flow of money into the development of fake news and so-called “experts” who are pushing agendas is tremendous. We’ve seen it recently with the sugar industry — much like the tobacco industry who literally wrote the book on manipulating and re-wrapping expertise and research in the middle of the last century — setting ideas on nutrition back decades. The market is crying out for a more consistent way to discover and evaluate the credibility of experts. We need a quick and trusted way to review their education, background, publications as well as their affiliations. We need to be able to conduct a front-line background check before we give them the platform to share their perspectives on television, radio, or in print. We need to vet the expert before they reach an audience that relies on the information being communicated to form opinions and make critical decisions that affect their lives. Local News Matters Local media is shrinking. Newsrooms are currently being threatened by constant shifts in both consumption and business models. If we are to promote accurate information and win the war on actual facts, we must make it easier for local journalists to do their jobs. Mainstream media still carries a lot of weight, especially online and television where the nightly news reaches a massive audience. Though the ratings are large, the subject matter doesn’t always resonate with viewers at home. We need to do a much better job helping local media get better access to the experts in our organisations so they can localise issues and tell stories, and do it in ways that everyone can understand. For example, a story on national unemployment numbers has a different context in San Francisco than it does in Flint, Michigan. Climate change is impacting Miami a lot differently than it is in the Great Lake states. In the end, all news is local. Speed Matters News is increasingly a speed game. With social media, a 24-hour news cycle, and the race to be first, time is of the essence. But in this game, haste may not only make waste, the truth may be a casualty as well. Most recently Fox News reported on a violent shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada. Six people were killed by a lone gunman. Fox News reported that the suspect was of Moroccan origin — that was false. The shooter was in fact of Canadian origin. It wasn’t until the Canadian Prime Minister’s office requested a retraction that Fox walked the story back…but it took almost two full days. In true Canadian fashion, Kate Purchase, Communications Director for Prime Minister Trudeau thanked Fox News. In the meantime, wrong information was shared across multiple platforms and seen by millions of people. This is when having your experts prepared, media-trained, and trusted internally to speak with media is key. In times of emergency and chaos, it may be the words, advice and perspective of a high-level expert that can calm a nervous public, or at the very least, clearly explain a situation and its outcomes with accuracy and trust. So Why Should This Matter to You? If you are focused on building your market visibility and brand reputation, making your organization’s experts more discoverable and responsive to media is as much a function of good public relations as it is a public service. In these days of fake news, alternate facts, and unclear agendas, an unbiased and objective point of view presented by a credible expert may be one of the few remaining pillars of integrity we have left. Experts bring credibility, reliability, and an elevated level of perspective and advice that the public can trust. It’s up to all of us to ensure our thought leaders rise above the fray and help rebuild the trust that is essential to building a civil society. How is your organization working with its experts to respond to these challenges? I’m particularly interested in speaking with communications and media relations professionals in higher education, healthcare and professional services as our team conducts more research in this area. Let us know what you think by sharing below. I read every comment.
Part 2: How Duke University doubled their media hits by showcasing faculty
Last week we shared the first five major rules of Expert Marketing that are currently being used by Duke University to double their media hits (READ PART I). We also developed some strategies and best practices for higher education institutions to better market their experts. In this blog post, we are going to share our team’s final insights into how to better leverage your experts. Rule #6: Create Once, Publish Everywhere At one time we just had to focus on creating a news site. That’s now expanded to a multi- screen environment that requires we thread content into sites that are being accessed from desktops, mobile devices and even digital signage that is often scattered throughout the campus. Sit down with your digital team and map out how to distribute media across multiple channels such as social networks, news-feeds, homepages, faculty sites, as well as faculty profiles in your expert center or speakers bureau. Many schools still don’t have the “responsive” capability to push their news content out to mobile users. Insiders Tip: Duke applies a “create once publish everywhere” model to ensure that time-crunched journalists can easily connect with their expert commentary, whether they access the website’s desktop or mobile versions, or through a wide range of social channels. Rule #7: Get Your Expert Quotes Ready for the Real-Time News Cycle Organizing a system with your faculty to publish pre-approved expert quotes on your website can pay huge dividends, as news outlets have fewer reporters covering more territory. Many of our clients tell us they are seeing less experienced reporters who have much less time to research and interact with media departments. Having pre-approved quotes ready to go makes it much simpler for media, making you much more attractive to them. This pre-planning can minimize the strain on faculty experts during class hours. An added bonus is that it also minimizes misquotes. Insiders Tip: Duke University aims to provide daily quotes on its website by midday as part of its “news tips” section. While these quotes generally take less than one hour to produce, they have proven most effective. Almost all of their news tips have been used by the media since they started producing them in June 2014. Rule #8: Promote Your Core Areas of Expertise First With so much going on throughout the campus there are a lot of opportunities to promote a diverse range of topics to the media. However, it’s really important to identify the core topics where you have expert commentary in demand. The best media relations people have established their school as go-to sources for select topics. You should also stake your claim. What groundbreaking research can you find on the campus that relates to key news events? Think about what reporters need to communicate to their audiences. Do you have faculty who are credible, approachable and engaging on these topics? Invest the time with your team to develop a master topics list and tune this list regularly based on upcoming faculty contributions and news cycle developments. Insiders Tip: Duke University identified a number of key factors that contribute to the media take-up rate such as the degree of media interest in a story; the relative supply of experts available to media and timing considerations. While it’s impossible to control all these variables, They learned, based on trial and error, that concentrating on core topics where they have an academic focus such as politics, law and the environment generated more coverage. Rule #9: Focus your Editorial Calendar on Key Event Anniversaries It is important to get the mix right when looking for media opportunities. While it will always be to your advantage to leverage breaking news if you can mobilize your faculty experts, there is also a predefined editorial flow to the news across a calendar of special and recurring events. It’s crucial that you get some of these major opportunities on the calendar and develop a campaign to enlist faculty experts. For example, Black History Month and the Super Bowl are both annual recurring events happening in February. It’s good to map these along with other special events that are periodically staged or non- recurring such as a G8 Summit or the upcoming papal visit to the US. If you can mobilize your experts to provide value for media who need to start researching these events well in advance you increase your chances of coverage. Insiders Tip: The Duke University media relations team actively monitors upcoming anniversaries and other timely events that reporters are likely to write about. Events that have the potential to generate stories that Duke can leverage with their experts are reviewed by the communications team in twice weekly scrum meetings. Rule #10: Leverage Tools such as Twitter to Grow your Media Contacts Much of the success you will have with faculty experts hinges on your ability to take your message to the market. So it’s important to focus on grooming and growing your media contacts. Besides buying access to media lists from vendors such as Cision, PR Newswire, Marketwired and Meltwater; don’t forget about Twitter. It provides a huge opportunity to build a list of influencers and key opinion leaders. Using a simple topic and hashtag searches on Twitter, you can begin to map various clusters of people who are following specific news beats that may be relevant to your institution. Remember that media outlets tend to follow other media outlets for story angles and media sources. Having a well organized list of people that have interacted with you in the past is a large part of distributing your news faster to a larger audience. It’s important to do Twitter searches to research specific reporters you want to pitch to see where their interests lie. Insiders Tip: Duke University refines its media lists continually using Twitter. It looks at the social graph of reporters who make use its online news tips to identify other journalists to add to their database.
It’s all eyes on Africa as the UN looks to find ways to ensure universal health care for all
It was a historic moment earlier this month as the United Nations and African Union pledged to pursue bolds goals that will strengthen global health and provide health care to all across Africa. “The Memorandum of Understanding we have signed today is an important step towards formalizing the cooperation between WHO and the African Union and to implementing the Addis Ababa Call to Action,” said the WHO chief. “The Addis Ababa Call to Action is a powerful commitment from African Union leaders to increase domestic financing for health, and to hold themselves accountable for that commitment”, he added. Following a political declaration on universal health coverage, which was approved in September by all UN Member States, the General Assembly adopted a global resolution to translate that commitment into reality by legislators in 140 countries. November 18 - UN News It’s indeed a bold declaration and one that will require prevention, infection control and affordable delivery of care. Key UN-AU collaboration specifics Provide technical expertise to the African Medicines Agency and create an environment to foster local production of medicines. Strengthen collaboration between WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – with a particular focus on emergency preparedness, to build defenses against epidemics and other health emergencies. Support the implementation of the Addis Ababa Call to Action on universal health coverage and the AU Declaration on Domestic Financing. The prospects are positive, but delivery will be a challenge, and if you are a journalist covering this topic and need an expert source for insight and perspective – let us help. Dr. Saad Bhamla is an Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Tech College of Engineering where he also runs the Bhamla Lab that develops low cost tools for science education and global health. Saad is available to speak to media regarding this topic, simply click on his icon to arrange an interview.
Multicultural Millennials Respond Positively to Health ‘Edutainment,’ Baylor Marketing Research Says
One-on-one interviews reveal which health issues concern millennials and their longing for optimal health Storytelling that educates and entertains – aka “edutainment” – is a powerful communications tool that can lead to positive health-related changes among multicultural millennials, according to a new marketing study from Baylor University. Tyrha Lindsey-Warren, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of marketing in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, led the study, “Making multicultural millennials healthy: The influence of health ‘edutainment’ and other drivers on health-oriented diet change,” which is published in the Journal of Cultural Marketing Strategy. Charlene A. Dadzie, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at the University of South Alabama, coauthored the research. The research sought to determine which health issues most concerned multicultural millennials and to gauge how effective media can be as a tool to address those issues and drive change. “This study finds that by bolstering self-identity and employing health ‘edutainment,’ it is possible to have a positive impact on the health intentions and behaviors of the millennial generation,” the researchers wrote. There are more than 92 million millennials (ages 20-34) in the United States today, the researchers observed. More than 9 million of those are identified as being overweight, and much of that can be attributed to a sedentary lifestyle and media consumption. White Americans watch an average of 140 hours of television per month (35 hours per week); African Americans watch 213 hours of television per month; and Latino Americans watch 33 hours of television per week and stream more than six hours of video per month. “Millennials are tech-savvy, they love social media, they’re actually more health conscious than previous generations, and they have significant economic power,” Lindsey-Warren said. “With so many millennials – in the scope of this study, multicultural millennials – watching so many screens, there is great opportunity to generate information and increase products and services geared towards health-oriented behavior.” But to take advantage of this opportunity, public and private organizations need to understand what drives millennials’ health choices and communicate accordingly, the researchers wrote. A total of 265 people participated in two components of the study – a health survey of 245 undergraduate students and one-on-one, in-depth interviews of 20 multicultural millennials. ‘I’m old-young and it’s getting real.’ For the second part of the study, the researchers interviewed 20 people – 10 women and 10 men – from two organizations, a large northeastern U.S. university and a mid-sized nonprofit organization in Harlem, New York. The subjects represented cultural, socioeconomic and educational diversity. The interviews were used to better understand the health status of these millennials as well as their relation to storytelling in the media, the researchers said. Participants answered health and wellness questions regarding their own health and personal network (example: “What is your ideal health?”) and questions about their personal media usage (example: “What are the top five health and wellness issues you see regularly portrayed in the media?”). One of the strongest themes to emerge from those interviews was that multicultural millennials “long to be healthy in mind, body and spirit” and are open to “seeing authentic and relevant storytelling regarding health issues in the media that is meaningful.” “They would definitely respond to health messages when they truly see themselves in storytelling that meets them where they are in life,” the researchers wrote. Some of the health-related topics addressed by those being interviewed included healthy eating, asthma, sexual health, mental health and fitness. One interviewee, a 21-year-old woman said she gets “out of breath” when she runs up the stairs and her knees “crack and hurt.” “I would love to have ideal health again. I really would. I would love it. I’m old-young, and it’s getting real,” she said. ‘More involved in the narrative’ In addition to the one-on-one interviews, each of the 20 interviewees watched media clips from two television programs – ABC’s “Private Practice” and the nationally syndicated health show, “The Doctors.” Each show highlighted the accurate health information concerning attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). “Private Practice” told its story via fictional characters in an episodic dramatic storytelling format. In this format, health issues were not directly promoted and there was no direct-to-camera discussion of those issues. “The Doctors,” on the other hand, utilized the format of real doctors conveying accurate health information in real-life situations, directly to the camera and in front of a studio audience. “From the interviews, it was apparent that the storytelling in the health edutainment stimuli worked because the participants enjoyed and were more involved in the narrative conveyed in ‘Private Practice’ versus ‘The Doctors,’” the researchers wrote. “For example, the ‘Private Practice’ segment told the story of a young boy and his parents who desperately asked their doctor to give them a prescription for ADHD medicine for their son, even though the son did not want the medicine and the doctor felt that the prescription might not have been needed.” The “Private Practice” story resonated better with those watching and scored high across genders, according to the study. One 21-year-old male university student said he was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and saw himself and his parents in the “Private Practice” clip. He said he took ADHD medicine for a while. “I didn’t like it and I stopped taking it, and that was it. My parents were, ‘OK – if you don’t like it, that’s the way it is – you’re going to study harder, though. And, that was it,” he told the interviewers. A 28-year-old female from the nonprofit program said she saw the “Private Practice” clip and could relate to the situation as a parent. “I felt I could relate because I felt that my son had ADHD, and I really, I kind of diagnosed him myself, and said that, so I was really interested in this topic,” she told the researchers. Marketing and advertising implications Given the constant barrage of media in the lives of millennials, it is only reasonable to question the effect of this environment on their health and well-being, Lindsey-Warren said. The findings of the study are useful for practitioners in marketing, advertising, public relations, digital and branded entertainment. “Ultimately, the key to making a difference in the lives of multicultural millennials and their health, both now and into the future, may be achieving the right balance of educating and entertaining them,” the researchers wrote. “For millennials, Gen Z and alpha – the newest generation – ‘edutainment’ is and will continue to be a primary way to educate them,” Lindsey-Warren said. “It’s through the stories we tell on digital, on streaming, on gaming – that’s the way those generations are learning.” ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY At Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, integrity stands shoulder-to-shoulder with analytic and strategic strengths. The School’s top-ranked programs combine rigorous classroom learning, hands-on experience in the real world, a solid foundation in Christian values and a global outlook. Making up approximately 25 percent of the University’s total enrollment, undergraduate students choose from 16 major areas of study. Graduate students choose from full-time, executive or online MBA or other specialized master’s programs, and Ph.D. programs in Information Systems, Entrepreneurship or Health Services Research. The Business School also has campuses located in Austin and Dallas, Texas. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/Baylor_Business.
Fair Play: Sexual Violence and College Athletes
Since the 1990s, we have seen multiple high-profile, even fatal, cases of violence against women at the hands of male intercollegiate athletes. These events and others prompted the Office of Civil Rights to call upon universities to more appropriately investigate and sanction perpetrators of sexual assault. In April 2011, using Title IX as an imperative, the Office for Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” (DCL) as a call for universities to more swiftly and adequately address incidences of sexual violence by students. As universities started implementing or revamping programs to reduce sexual violence on campus, it became obvious there was a lack of current research on college athletics to inform their decisions. This led me to conduct my own research on sexual assault within intercollegiate athletics. I wanted to understand the ways in which former college athletes understand sexual assault, as well as their perceptions of their athletic department’s response to occurrences and prevention. My research on sexual violence was first published in 2015 and again in 2018. Based on this research, in 2017-2018, I implemented a sexual violence prevention program with athletes from a variety of sports: men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, softball, football, and women’s golf and tennis. That program, Fair Play: Sexual Violence Prevention for Athletes, was created because many athletes are leaders on their campuses and in their communities. While some research shows that some male athletes may be at higher rates for perpetrating sexual assault, we know that the vast majority of athletes are good students who want to help keep their fellow teammates, students, and community members safe. Fair Play teaches athletes about sexual assault, consent, and rape culture in sports, helps them re-examine traditional gender norms and roles, and gives them tools and skills to intervene and stop sexual violence before it happens. With grant funding from the Ohio Department of Higher Education, we collaborated with Sexual Assault Response Network of Central Ohio (SARNCO) to facilitate Fair Play. Research done to assess the efficacy of the program is forthcoming in two journals. However, data indicates that, after participating in Fair Play, athletes are less likely to believe in rape myths, have a better understand of consent, and are able to identify and stop the spread of rape culture. In addition, Fair Play participants reported increased knowledge and ability to engage in bystander intervention, which is aimed at preventing violence before it happens. Fair Play is effective in its depth and breadth – participants attend 10 hours of programming – as well as the unique and active learning environment targeted specifically for athletes. Kristy McCray, Ph.D., is an Otterbein assistant professor in sport management and a former rape crisis center executive director. McCray’s program focuses on college athletes as some research indicates that male intercollegiate athletes are more likely to hold sexually aggressive attitudes and behaviors. Click on her icon at the top to get in touch with Kristy.
Key Environmental Quality Research Questions Identified for North America by Multidisciplinary Team
As density in cities increase along with other global megatrends, researchers are working to address environment and health challenges in collaborative ways. Using a recently pioneered process, a multidisciplinary team of North American researchers, government agencies and businesses leaders identified priority research questions for the United States, Canada and Mexico in an effort to tackle pressing environmental quality issues. In an article published in the journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies and director of the environmental health science program at Baylor University, led the Global Horizon Scanning Project (GHSP), which focuses on identifying environmental and health issues internationally. Brooks also facilitated GHSP workshops in Africa, Australia, Central and Southeastern Asia, Europe and Latin America. “We face palpable global environment and health challenges, which require innovative understanding, tools, products and systems to prevent, diagnose and manage adverse outcomes to public health and the environment,” Brooks said. “The GHSP was initiated as part of a larger effort to identify important international research needs. It is essentially a research roadmap towards achieving more sustainable environmental quality, which is necessary to protect human health, biodiversity and ecosystem services.” As part of the study, members of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry’s (SETAC) and the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Environmental Chemistry and Agrochemcials Divisions submitted questions that were then synthesized during a workshop by scientists and engineers from the academic, government and business sectors. “This project is intentionally inclusive, bottom-up, multidisciplinary, multisector and transparent,” Brooks said. “Answering these priority research questions will not be easy, but strategically doing so promises to accelerate progress to address grand challenges that matter to everyone.” “This report provides a comprehensive global perspective covering some of the world’s most critical environmental challenges that will impact society for decades to come,” said Sherine Obare, Ph.D., dean and professor of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at UNC Greensboro and chair elect of the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Chemistry Division. “SETAC’s ability to engage scientists from around the globe has led to forums that identify urgent challenges including, next generation 21st century analytical chemistry methods, strategies to predict chemical exposure, understanding multiple stressors and new approaches in chemical risk assessment. This project will define the scientific directions needed to transform environmental science and engineering, globally.” “The GHSP reflected in this paper has harnessed the insights of scientists not only across North America but around the world,” said Charles Menzie, Ph.D., Global Executive Director of SETAC. “Each brings tremendous experience and a strong sense of what is needed for future research. However, the distillation of these many into a set of consensus questions provides a much needed foundation for charting our direction for research to inform environmental policy. SETAC is proud to have supported this through our global meetings and now through our journal.” A related GHSP manuscript identifying priority environmental quality questions for the Australasiaregion of Oceania was also recently published in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. GHSP efforts from Africa and Asia are ongoing with plans to report priority research questions from these global regions in the next year. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines.
Whether making the transition to college, starting a new job, ending a relationship or retiring, change can cause psychological stress, which in turn can make for wear and tear on the body. The good news is, we can develop coping mechanisms to reduce stress and live happier, healthier lives, say Baylor University psychologist Annie Ginty, Ph.D., and her University of California-Irvine collaborator, Sarah Pressman, Ph.D. Using a grant from AXA Research Fund — which supports projects in health, environment, new technology and socioeconomics — Ginty and Pressman produced three short videos to help students and the general public understand what stress is, what it does to our bodies and how to handle it. The videos stem from a two-year AXA postdoctoral research fellowship by Ginty, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences. She investigated the relationship between biological responses to stress and adaptation during a stressful transition, particularly students’ adjustment to college. The videos, 1 to 3 minutes each, are housed on AXA’s YouTube channel and bear Baylor's new logo. “Psychological stress is bad for health; exercise stress is good,” said Ginty, who works with nonprofits to serve at-risk adolescents by providing high-intensity interval training workouts to reduce stress and improve health. “When we think about exercise, your heart rate and metabolic system increase, meaning you’re breathing harder. The rest of your muscle physiology is changing. Your body is working together to maintain homeostasis for balance. This is good stress,” she said. “But with psychological stress, the heart works much harder than the rest of the body. That metabolic imbalance can be hard on the heart and make the body more vulnerable to disease.” In the videos, Baylor students discuss the causes of psychological stress in their lives, how their bodies react and ways they handle stress. For them, a college education poses looming deadlines, fear of living up to expectations, anxiety about tests and adjusting to a new atmosphere. In the first video — "Stress and Your Health" — they describe such reactions as higher heart rate, restlessness, loss of sleep, skin breakouts, headaches and tense muscles. “If I fail at a test, I then in my mind see myself not getting into medical school, which is a pretty big domino effect,” said Devin Mangold of Wolfforth, Texas, a senior neuroscience major in the Honors College at Baylor. Such stressors can take a toll on moods and emotions, putting the physiological stress system into overdrive and possibly becoming a threat to long-term physical health — which in turn creates more stress. The second video — "Effects of Stress on Your Body" — explores how stress can affect emotions and the body. Stressed people may become anxious, sad, worried and angry. The stressors can interfere with sleep and can leave less time to exercise. People also tend to eat foods with higher fat and higher carbohydrates, said Pressman, associate professor of psychological science at UC-Irvine. That can lead to muscle tension, which can translate into injury. The third video — "Coping with Stress" — is about the importance of coping mechanisms so that minor stressors don’t turn into serious health issues. Social networking has been shown by research to reduce the effects of stress in such ways as lowering blood pressure. The best ways to cope are physical activity, a healthy diet and cognitive reappraisal. “Cognitive reappraisal” is “a fancy way of saying we’re changing how we interpret our situation,” said Danielle Young, Psy.D., clinical research coordinator of the Baylor Behavioral Medicine Laboratory in the department of psychology and neuroscience department. “It’s the difference between saying, ‘This is going to be the hardest test ever, and I’m going to fail’ and ‘This is going to be a hard test, but I’m going to do the best I can.’ Even that slight shift in thought can make you less stressed.” A recent study by Ginty of 230-plus Baylor students examined the effect of reappraising stress. “We found that if we gave brief instructions about how increases in heart rate during stress mean they were ‘ready’ and were not a ‘bad thing,’ people rated their levels of anxiety as more helpful to their performance,” Ginty said. The video encourages individuals to experiment with coping techniques that work for them. Students who appear in the video suggest methods from working out to cooking to reading to walking their dogs. “My natural demeanor is laid back, but internally, I stress myself,” said senior neuroscience major Simba Masando of Harare, Zimbabwe. Early in college, he “just went headfirst into the material” of a capstone course. “Now as a senior, I’m doing some preliminary courses I’m not necessarily interested in, but they’re required. I’ve alleviated some pressure in the major, but some of the requirements are a little more worrisome.” As a member of Baylor Behavioral Medicine Lab, what he’s learned about stress oping has been “greatly helpful” as he looks ahead to post-graduate school and his eventual goal of opening a school in Zimbabwe. “I’m an avid learner,” he said. “School is my job, as I see it, but my hobbies are learning, too. In basketball, there’s always a new move I want to learn; in piano, there’s a new technique. If you take the piano away from me, I’ll try guitar. And if you take basketball away from me, I’ll try tennis.” ABOUT ANNIE GINTY Research articles by Annie Ginty, Ph.D., include: “The behavioural, cognitive, and neural corollaries of blunted cardiovascular and cortisol reactions to acute psychological stress,” published in ; “Challenge and threat imagery manipulates heart rate and anxiety responses to stress,” published in ; and “Depression and anxiety are associated with a diagnosis of hypertension 5 years later in a cohort of late middle-aged men and women” published in ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. It provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.
August is National Breastfeeding Month – Let our Experts Help with Your Coverage
It’s August…a month that celebrates breastfeeding and all the benefits that come with it. Breastfeeding is natural, healthy and cost-effective – and the American public is beginning to recognize a mother’s right to feed her child wherever and whenever she wants. Breastfeeding is a great benefit to the environment and society, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Breastfeeding families are sick less often and the parents miss less work. It does not require the use of energy for manufacturing or create waste or air pollution. There is no risk of contamination and it is always at the right temperature and ready to feed. A new website developed by researchers in Canada and Asia showed that the world could have saved $341 billion each year if mothers breastfeed their children for longer, helping prevent early deaths and various diseases, according to a July 12 article from Reuters. Known as the “Cost of Not Breastfeeding,” the online tool used data from a six-year study supported by the U.S.-based maternal and child nutrition initiative, Alive & Thrive. According to Augusta University Health’s Dr. Kathryn Strickler McLeod, breastfeeding protects against a variety of diseases and conditions in the infant, including diarrhea, respiratory tract infection, childhood obesity and much more. Additionally, there are also maternal health benefits to breastfeeding, including a decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancers. If you are covering this topic – let us help with your stories and questions. Dr. Kathryn Strickler McLeod is a nationally recognized expert in pediatric general and adolescent medicine. McLeod is available to speak with media – simply click on the icon to arrange an interview.
