The MediaPulse project was initiated in 2001, during a half-day meeting attended by Media Awareness Network (MNet) staff, Dr. Arlette Lefebvre from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Dr. Simon Davidson from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss some of the more troubling findings of MNet’s recently completed research project, Young Canadians in a Wired World. The research looked at how Canadian students are using the Internet and the extent to which they may be putting themselves at risk.
It became apparent, as this group discussed some of the project’s wide-ranging findings, that there was an urgent need to inform health-care professionals about the impact of media on young people, and to encourage them to integrate media awareness into the practice setting.
Following this meeting, Dr. Lefebvre and Dr. Davidson contacted selected health practitioners and organizations to test the idea of a MediaPulse project. The response was overwhelmingly positive and led to the submission of a funding proposal to Health Canada’s Population Health Fund.
Consultations regarding the development of MediaPulse reached as far as the Washington-based American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In 1997, the AAP had launched a similar program, Media Matters, for US paediatricians. This successful program was used as a model for the MediaPulse project, but a unique Canadian approach was incorporated.
MediaPulse, a joint initiative of MNet and the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) that is funded through Health Canada’s Population Health Fund, aims to respond to public-health concerns by:
- helping health-care professionals understand the ways in which images and messages in the mass media may affect the health and well-being of children and adolescents
- encouraging health practitioners to integrate media awareness into the practice setting
- influencing parental knowledge and behaviour relating to wise media management in the home
These goals will be accomplished through:
a guide for health practitioners (which includes the Media History Form assessment tool) that explores the media’s influence on children’s health and offers practical suggestions for incorporating media awareness into the practice setting
- the themed May/June 2003 issue of Paediatrics & Child Health (the CPS’s peer-reviewed journal, distributed to 15,500 paediatricians, family physicians and other health-care professionals across Canada), which, as well as an editorial, includes articles presenting current research on the links between media and specific health issues
- a professional development workshop to be given at the CPS’s annual meeting in Calgary in June 2003, the Family Medicine Forum in Calgary in October 2003 and the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in Halifax in November 2003
- a Web-based environment for health-care professionals on the MNet Web site that includes handouts, research articles and reports related to media and health
To provide advice on the development of the MediaPulse project, MNet assembled a steering committee composed of MNet staff and experts in health-care practice.
Steering Committee Members
Simon Davidson, MD, FRCPC
Child Psychiatrist
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario
Arlette Lefebvre, MD, FRCPC
Child Psychiatrist
Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto, Ontario
Elizabeth Moreau
Director of Communications and Public Education
Canadian Paediatric Society
Patricia Morris, MD, CCFPC
Family Physician
Ottawa Hospital (Civic Site)
Ottawa, Ontario
Peter Nieman, MD, FRCPC
Paediatrician
Alberta Children’s Hospital
Calgary, Alberta
Jan D’Arcy
Executive Director
Media Awareness Network
Cathy Wing
Internet and Media Education Specialist
Media Awareness Network
Catherine Swift
Consultant
For more information on MediaPulse: Measuring the Media in Kids’ Lives, contact the Media Awareness Network at mediapulse@media-awareness.ca
