Working with the Media to Promote Teen Pregnancy Prevention

A VAGUE TARGET AUDIENCEAll sexually active teensconsist of those whose behavioror attitudes you want to change.Target audiences may include,among others:Teens• sexually active teens• abstinent teens• pre-teens and young teens• older teensA MORE FOCUSED TARGETAUDIENCESexually active teens in theservice area of a clinic whereteen pregnancy rates are highWAYS TO DEFINE YOURTARGET AUDIENCE• geography/communityenvironment• demographics• age• gender• cultural background• out-of-school teensAdults• parents of teens• others who influence teens(coaches, youth workers)• adult volunteers• young adult men who dateyounger teenage girlsOrganizations that Work withTeens• agencies that serve teens• community service groups• religious/faith organizations• schoolsPotential Partners or Supporters• business leaders• community and civic leaders• public officialsAs with your desired result, themore specific you can be indescribing your target audience,the better. You will need to knowthe composition of the targetaudience so that you can developappropriate messages and testthem with all subgroups.There are many ways to defineand refine a general list ofaudiences:Geography. Your audience maybe made up of urban, suburban,and rural individuals, if the targetedprogram area is largeenough. You should divide theminto these segments and refinemessages and testing proceduresaccordingly.Age. The age of the audiencetargeted by a pregnancy preventioncampaign can range widely.Choosing the right age group isa function of your overall preventiongoal. For example, a103MEDIA