Module 2

Module 2 has apparently zipped by! 3 weeks --- crazy. So the three things that stuck out to me were:

1) The importance of audience segmentation by other factors besides demographics. And the differences between segmentation and sterotyping.

2) The word of mouth and health literacy articles

3) I agree with Jessica, I really enjoyed the "Zen Presentation" topic

Ok so audience segmentation. This is what I presented on. The importance of segmenting on more than just demographics really struck me. Its so common in research to segment based on demographics but the articles and class really emphasized how important it is to segment based on the individual characteristics that people have. Looking at psychosocial, culture, attitudes, behavior etc is important. Just because two people are the same gender, age, ethnicity does not mean they share the same belief system. Therefore attempting to reach them could take very different avenues. As for stereotyping vs segmenting, I think we all "stereotype". It allows us to figure out what a person is interested in and how to relate to them better. So I don't think its necessarily a bad thing. People tend to associate with things that they can relate to. So if we can segment a population to have similar characteristics so that we can create a message that will reach the greatest amount of people possible, then I think we're being successful at our job.

As for the word of mouth and health literacy, it too astonishes me. Word of mouth is an important method of communication. It is how a lot of people gain information, so it something that we as health promoters need to understand and try to use. The lack of literacy in our country astonishes me. I feel as though, in some sense, that it should be unacceptable, however that is for another discussion. Irrespective of why or whether that should be the case, again we need to figure out different ways to communicate with individuals who have a lower literacy level. Because no matter how good the information is, if they don't understand it they're simply going to filter the information out and gain nothing from the message.

Finally the Zen presentation. I really thought she did a good job of conveying an important message. Less can be more when it comes to slides. Aesthetics are important. Be creative. know your information. As a teacher, I learned that my students gained more out of the lectures when I bullet pointed my slides and made them a guide they could follow but were required to take notes off of, because not all the information was provided for them. Keeping the slides simple and less wordy aided in their paying attention because they weren't bombarded with tons of information on each slide. In our mini internship class we were taught how important it is to keep wording on slides to a minimum, to make the presentation engaging and relate it to the audience and to make them visually pleasing. Knowing the information and being able to use it the slides as a visual guide that can give them audience something to follow is a good thing, but putting too much is overwhelming.

Jessica I'm sure you'll do well on your presentation! Don't stress too much!!! Whatever you do to get yourself to relax do it prior to the presentation. Also, I would recommend not memorizing what you're going to say, memorizing can get you into trouble if you forget where you're at or what you want to say. Just try to use your slides as an outline of what you want to talk about. Put specific cues that will help jar your memory and practice going through it with the cues. As for the um's...when you feel yourself pause, just close your mouth or take a breath for a second, use something else to fill the space. Small breaks of silence aren't a bad thing when you're presenting :) Good luck! See you Tuesday :)