Mission and Vision

• Project Resume

The mission of the Council on Communications and Media is to ensure that children, families, and the pediatricians who care for them, have the knowledge and tools to make informed, health-promoting choices regarding the communication of messages to or about children through media, health education, and other sources.

The Council will achieve this mission by serving, energizing, and organizing AAP Members for effective advocacy, education, research, policy development, and dissemination.

Vision:
Children and families will be better prepared to balance the messages they receive so they can make choices that promote health and well-being. Pediatricians will accomplish this through their clinical practices, while also advancing pediatrics as spokespeople for the Academy and by becoming better medical communicators.

Goal Statements:
In an effort to achieve its mission and vision, the Council on Communications and Media will focus its efforts in three overarching areas:

1. Service to Members and education;
2. Public education; and
3. Policy development and implementation.

Value Statements:

• Media can transmit anti- or pro-social messages.
• Exposure to all media is an expected event for all children.
• Children learn what they live and they live in two worlds: the non-screen and the screen world.
• Excessive screen time displaces children from a myriad of real-life experiences that better promote emotional, social, physical, and cognitive development.
• Children are impacted by their environment. Although they are vulnerable to media messages, they are inherently resilient.
• Family time and communication within the family are essential elements of child health, growth, and development.
• Children live up to or down to the expectations set for them.
• The Council will to seek to call attention through education and advocacy to the negative influences and promote the positive influences of media.
• As a trusted source of health information pediatricians must be part of this process.
• Pediatricians serve their patients by using all modes of media to communicate with families, the public, and legislators, and are best prepared to do so by being trained in communication skills.
• A diverse group of media trained spokespeople advances child health
• The Council supports pediatricians who work as authors or print or broadcast journalists.
• Council Member participation in all phases of media policy development and propagation increases the AAP's effectiveness.

This Council Serves:

• Children and Families
• Pediatricians/Members at all stages, from residency on.
  

Project Resume

COCM has created a number of exciting educational projects for AAP Members interested in media issues. As experts in media related issues, we strive to develop educational programs to benefit all AAP Members interested in media issues. By doing so, we hope to continue to amplify the voice of the Academy nationally and locally and help pediatricians be more skillful in dealing with the media on all levels..

Educational programs we've presented at previous NCEs:

STRATEGIES FOR VACCINE NEWS STORIES - SAN FRANCISCO -10/22/01 An unlisted program promoted only through our email list that attracted 50 people.

CHILDHOOD INJURY: COMMUNICATING THE COMPLEXITY WITH SOUND BITES - BOSTON - 10/22/02 A collaborative program between SOM and the Section on Injury and Poison Prevention, unlisted in the program as the SOM had no official status at that time

ADVERTISING AND CHILDREN - NEW ORLEANS - 11/1/03 A two hour session featuring Jean Kilbourne.

MEET THE PRESS: MEDIA TRAINING FOR PEDIATRICIANS - SAN FRANCISCO - 10/10/04A media training program designed for the growing journalistic and media needs of pediatricians

SEX, DRUGS AND VIOLENCE: IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - WASHINGTON - 10/9/05 A collaborative program with the Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the Council on Community Pediatrics.

KIDS FOR SALE; JUNK FOD AND ADVERTISING IN SCHOOLS - ATLANTA - 10/8/06 A collaborative program in conjunction with the Section on School Health.

Future Programs:

2007 NCE

Sat. October 27, 2007, 8 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
H112 Council on Communications and Media//Council on Clinical Information Technology, Joint Session:

"GRAND THEFT AUTO TO MYSPACE.COM: THE DANGERS AND PLEASURES OF VIDEOGAMES AND THE INTERNET - TECHNOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE" (4 CME)

Attendees will learn how much time teenagers spend playing videogames and using the Internet; what videogames and which Internet sites are most problematic for teens and older children and how to counsel parents about them; and also learn from the FBI which Web sites are used most frequently to entice child victims and how to counsel parents about these Web sites.

We believe this program, like most of those we present, will interest many Members of the Academy outside of the Council and their spouses as well.

8:00 a.m. - Business Meeting, Council on Communications and Media

8:45 a.m. - Welcome & Introduction
Lewis Wasserman, M.D., FAAP
Vic Strasburger, M.D., FAAP
Program Chairs

9:15 a.m. - The Internet: Friend or Foe?
Ed Donnerstein, Ph.D.

9:50 a.m. - Protecting Children Online
Brian Boetig
Supervisory Special Agent, FBI, Cyber Crime Squad, San Francisco

10:25 a.m. - BREAK

10:45 a.m. - Teaching Children to Kill or to Heal: Antisocial & Prosocial Videogames
Don Shifrin, M.D., FAAP

11:20 a.m. - The Bottom Line on Videogames: What We Know & What We Don't Know
Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D.

12:05 p.m. - Q & A

12:35 p.m. - Presentation: Holroyd-Sherry Award

12:45 p.m. - Adjourn

Monday, October 29, 2007, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
W345 Council on Communications and Media, Department of Communications, Council on School Health:

"COMMUNICATING YOUR PEDIATRIC AND SCHOOL HEALTH ISSUES" (2 CME)

Your office manager calls to say a TV crew's on its way to interview you for a local angle on a national breaking medical story. The interview will be broadcast 'live' in 15 minutes. Nervous? Tempted to slip out the back door and drive away? Wait! You can prepare yourself for tough media scenarios by attending this hands-on session with helpful do's and don'ts from a seasoned radio journalist. Through role-playing, learn how to appear on camera, do radio interviews, and communicate school health messages effectively.

 

For the 2008 NCE in Boston

WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD: CHILDREN, MEDIA, & THE 1ST AMENDMENTPlanned format: panel discussion

NEW WAYS TO HURT: ELECTRONIC EXPOLITATION OF CHILDREN (co-sponsored with the Section on Child Abuse and Neglect) Planned format: presentation

MULTIMEDIA, THE AAP AND YOUR PRACTICE and DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: 1000 WORDS TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE (co-sponsored with the Council on Clinical Information Technology) Planned Format: presentation