more presentations!

wow, and wow. everyone did an awesome job presenting this week!
i look forward to seeing the whole shebang in a few weeks.
i thought it was really interesting how the walking school bus group learned about websites that are supposedly "safe" for younger kids. i can't say i really believe in safety on the internet though... anyone can appear to be anyone they want to be... that's how young teens were lured over chats in the first place. it's scary to know how strangers prey on kids who have little supervision or who are in stages of rebellion against their folks. really reinforces that the best way to protect your kids is to be open with them, honest, and prepare them for all the hard stuff that's out there. with the world connecting the way it is, not even the smallest town is totally safe anymore. it's sad. so many benefits to the internet, but nothing great comes without a price.

i've enjoyed this section of class. many new possible channels have opened up to me, and i hope i can make use of them more in the future. i think the part that will stick with me the most is using various forms of entertainment to grab people's attention and open up their minds. once their minds and bodies are open, then we can pounce and casually impress our messages of health and well-being into their lives!

contracts

thinking about the communication contracts that i engage in on a regular basis has made me realize that i should really incorporate a lot more entertainment into my messages. over the past few days, spending time with family and friends, i found myself trying to persuade a lot of people to live more healthy lives and to treat the environment better. some people were very open to my comments and attempts to persuade them, but they were mainly those who already take part in environmentally friendly actions and live pretty healthy lifestyles. so, in those conversations i felt like i was just reaffirming their beliefs and giving them more ways to continue their behaviors. for those who are less involved in these areas, i found myself getting frustrated after talking for a while and it seeming like they were just nodding along waiting for me to finish so they could change the subject... i kept wishing i could show these folks a few videos that would back up my points; to show them it's not just me but also people everywhere who are trying to convince their loved ones to change their habits! the videos i've found out there that spread healthy living and environmental consciousness use humor and sarcasm to grab attention, and then continue on with facts after people are open to the speaker. putting a smile on someone's face really opens their mind to whatever might come next. i want to work on finding ways to open people up without necessarily using videos though, because i think it can make the message i'm trying to get across too impersonal when i'm in a smaller setting... maybe coming up with a few basic jokes on the topics just to grab attention without degrading people's intelligence on the topics could work...

web 2.0

web 2.0 was an interesting topic this week.
there are so many aspects of the web that could be used to further health campaigns. from developing campaign ideas and getting audience feedback, to actually using the social networks and similated worlds to pass messages out to a greater public. it would be amazing to use the similated worlds... creating public health officers in cyberland could push healthy messages to an entirely different crowd. a lot of people are becoming modern day hermits by living life entirely through the internet, so using that technology could spread messages to otherwise unreachable audiences.
using the web more will help programs reach younger audiences, which could have a dramatic effect on the health care system if we can get people to live healthy from younger ages. using networks like myspace or facebook could connect a lot of young people to a cause, but i think it might be tricky to really grasp their attention through those networks. even just using the ad space on those pages to get messages across could have some effect, but then we'll probably run into problems with over saturation.
in short, i know the web is becoming a major source of information for people, and if we can figure out how to harness that avenue then major campaigns could have much greater impacts.