Entertainment-Public Health Summit

This website presents a visual record of the Entertainment-Public Health Summit, held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, May 2007, through the sponsorship of the Population Media Center and Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. The Summit's purpose was to bring together entertainment industry leaders and public health professionals for the purpose of creating dialogue and to serve as an ongoing mechanism for regular and speedy input by the public health community into entertainment programmes on reproductive health and other health concerns. The Summit was presented in association with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Writers Guild of America West, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation.


Key presentations, available on video, along with the opening address, focus on such topics as media and behaviour change, beginning with Dr. Albert Bandura, Stanford Psychology professor and originator of Social Cognitive Theory, speaking on, "Why Mass Media is Essential to Behaviour Change on a Mass Scale." A panel on partnership between media and public health organisations presented case studies on partnership programmes and models. One presentation describes using the Muppets, a group of puppets popularised on Sesame Street television, to improve social and health outcomes through the participation of children in creating entertainment models. Jose Rimon spoke on evaluation of combined and independent effects of 18 mass media communication programmes on the HIV epidemic in South Africa. Another presentation on evaluation methodology focuses on evaluating and measuring the impact of entertainment for behaviour change using numbers and pictures. A presentation on special markets focused on taking into account cultural qualities in minority audiences and how to reach these populations with compelling health stories. The final presentation available on the site is a description of new strategies and partnerships in communication and health.