News for a Change: An Advocate's Guide to Working with the Media

This guidebook details media advocacy as the strategic use of news media, advertising, and community organizing to advance a public policy initiative, and serves as a blueprint for those wanting to increase the power and effectiveness of their social change efforts.

Lawrence Wallack, DrPH, is Professor of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the School of Community Health, College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University, and was the founding director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group. Dr. Wallack is one of the primary architects of media advocacy -- an innovative approach to working with mass media to advance public health. He has published extensively and lectures frequently on the news media and public health policy issues. He is the principal author of Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention (Sage Publications, 1993). He is also co-editor (with Charles Atkin) of Mass Media and Public Health: Complexities and Conflicts (Sage, 1990). Dr. Wallack has appeared on Nightline, Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News, the Today Show, CNN, Oprah, and numerous other programs to comment on policy issues regarding public health problems.

Katie Woodruff, MPH, is Program Director at the Berkeley Media Studies Group, an organization conducting research and training in the use of media to promote healthy public policies. Her research and training activities are directed toward groups interested in social change. Ms. Woodruff provides strategic consultation and media advocacy training to community groups working on a range of public health and public interest issues, including violence prevention, alcohol control, tobacco control, injury control, childrens health, child care, and affirmative action. She also conducts research on news content and has published case studies and articles on applying media advocacy to public health and social justice issues.

Lori Dorfman, DrPH, is Director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group. Her current research examines how local television news and newspapers portray youth and violence. She edited Reporting on Violence, a handbook for journalists illustrating how to include a public health perspective in news coverage of violence. Dr. Dorfman has published articles on public health and mass communication issues and is a co-author of Public Health and Media Advocacy: Power for Prevention (Sage Publications, 1993). Dr. Dorfman has served as a consultant for government agencies and community programs across the U.S. and Canada working on a variety of issues including violence prevention, alcohol control, tobacco control, nutrition and exercise, injury control, child care, and childhood lead poisoning.

Iris Diaz is the Training Coordinator for the Berkeley Media Studies Group, where she designs and conducts media advocacy training for community groups and young people across the country. Ms. Diaz has presented to national conferences and has extensive experience consulting with communities to understand and effectively use the power of the news media to promote policies that advance social and public health goals. Prior to working with the Berkeley Media Studies Group, Ms. Diaz worked as an AIDS Counselor for the Shanti Project in San Francisco. She also has 10 years of television experience as Associate Producer and Producer of segments for children's programming, documentaries, specials and health-care related videos at KRON-TV, KPIX-TV and Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.