Working with the Media to Promote Teen Pregnancy Prevention

prevention goal of reducing teensexual activity.FOR MORE INFORMATIONON EVALUATION...See Chapter 16 (Volume 3),“Building Evaluation intoYour Work.”Some campaigns use focusgroups to test messages.Participants give immediatefeedback on potential messages,offer suggestions for changes,and even suggest where to runit or who would make a goodspokesperson. Other programsuse surveys, which can be moreexpensive. Still others haveongoing advisors.Not Me, Not Now, in MonroeCounty, New York, maintains ateen panel for message testing.Commercial marketers knowthat people remember messagesthat meet their needs or supporttheir values. Experts on teenssuggest that young people aremore receptive to positive messages.However, fear appeals area staple of public health PSAs—particularly in relation to AIDS,drugs, and drunk driving. Whilethere is some disagreementabout the use of fear appeals,research shows that they areeffective in limited circumstancesand when done very carefully(DeJong & Winsten, 1998).Create a system forongoing monitoringSuccessful media initiativesinclude ways to track theirprogress, evaluate whether theyhave successfully reached theirultimate goal, and find out whenthey need to make correctionsalong the way. Formal evaluationof media campaigns can bevery challenging, especially ifyou want to measure behaviorchange, but there are less expensiveways to track progress,including:• collecting press clips, listingthe audiences for presentations,and keeping track ofthe number of times a PSAhas run and where;• continuously testing the validityof messages with teenadvisory panels; and• conducting audience surveysto measure how far the messagehas reached, or whether,for example, parents are talkingwith their children aboutsex more since the campaignbegan.HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVETEEN PREGNANCY PREVEN-TION COMMUNICATOR• create a buzz• keep the message out there• always have something newto say• convey a sense of urgency• inspire action111MEDIA