Everyone knows the rules--when you ride the bus, you have to ignore everyone else. If someone walks by, don't look at them. If someone farts, don't laugh. If they sit down next to you, just stare out the window. Above all, don't do anything to interfere with everyone else's ignoring. Don't bump into people, don't talk on your phone if you don't have to, and absolutely DO NOT talk to the person sitting next to you. Today I was riding the 54C from where I live to the Southside. I watched as a young woman struggled to board her stroller onto my bus, all the while trying to catch hold of the wrists of two toddlers that were with her. The process took over a minute, which, as you must know, is a severe breach of bus etiquette. I noticed the man in front of me check his watch. I also noticed the crowd of lunchtime hospital employees, students, and other Oakland regulars milling about outside, at the bus stop.
Fifth and Atwood is probably one of the most diverse stops in town, socioeconomically. Medical residents and homeless people share the bench, while middle class nurses and career dishwashers smoke their after- and before- work cigarettes. And there they all were this morning, chatting on their cell phones or staring lifelessly ahead, watching this young woman struggling.
Why did no one, out of all of us looking on, step up to give her a hand? Clearly, she could have used the help. We all either watched her shoving the stroller or we looked back down to the news we were reading, ignoring the situation entirely. Every one of us were either afraid to break the status quo (those sacred city rules of staring straight ahead) or else were far too wrapped up in our own issues to take much notice.
This is the kind of attention, the mix of hesitation and indifference, that is paid to teen pregnancy. Although the situation could easily be considered a crisis (billions of dollars lost to it, hundreds of thousands of girls being shortchanged and children being brought into disadvantaged homes), in the eyes of most people it's just an everyday problem. Any efforts to prevent teen pregnancy will require communicating the problem to an audience that can make a change. Effective communication dictates speaking to the audience from their perspective. When communicating the risks of teen pregnancy, "Crisis Communication" (as defined in Risk Communication) would be over-the-top dramatic. Because it's an everyday problem to most people, the authority of the communicator would be compromised--he or she would likely be laughed at! Teen pregnancy prevention communication falls most squarely into the "Care" and "Consensus" realms of risk communication. It's a subject that has been studied thoroughly, with volumes of information (just look here for an idea of just how much). Unfortunately, there is currently no clear-cut ensured method of prevention. For example, there are strong arguments both for and against abstinence-only sex education as well as for and against handing out contraceptives to teens. This kind of disagreement necessitates "Consensus Communication."
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4 comments:
The way you approached this post was really interesting--I enjoyed your bus anecdote. I feel that the popular choice to ignore the problem at hand is an important facet to consider in developing a risk communication plan. The specific audience involved, whether it is a general public or a specific age bracket, like college students, shapes the type of risk communication that is appropriate. In the case of a college student population (specifically female), a consensus approach might be most fitting as there would be a call to action for the female collegiate population to practice safe sex and to be aware of the risks involved when they choose not to do so.
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I agree with Jeff in that it was a very interesting approach to this post. I agree with you 100 percent that teenage pregnancy is a risk that needs to be approached on a care and consensus level. I thought it was very interesting how you compared it to a crisis because sadly it is very often not seen as a postive experience. However, although the consequences are sometimes hurtful it doesn't always have to be so traumatizing as Americans make it out to be. The girls that are getting pregnany aren't always from low income families mistakes happen. The support of ones family can make or break the pregnancy so maybe along with ways to prevent it they should conjure up a way to help "traditional" families cope with this "crisis".(not sure if this exists) Anyways great blog I look forward to reading more.
Laura,
I really liked the way you brought your topic to life using an anecdote that almost everybody, especially those in this class, can relate to.
You have a very difficult road in figuring out how to effective get this information out to the public. Because the type of category of risk communication that you chose is so closely related to your audience, I think it would be easier if you were first able to narrow down your audience. I don’t know who your audience is, but if you haven’t already figured it out, I can give you a few suggestions.
Because you are working on preventing pregnancies in teenagers, you might want to look for a “middle man” of sorts to help you effectively reach the teenagers rather than addressing the teenagers themselves. You could work on communicating with the parents of teenagers, but in my personal opinion, teenagers will only listen so much to their parents. As a majority of teenagers are in high school, I believe that it would be good to address the health department/teachers and in conjunction with peers – teenagers are more likely to listen to each other and peer pressure can be used in a good way – effectively getting the message across to the teenagers can be done.
Once you determine your audience, it will make your category type of risk communication easier. As you pointed out in your post, you seem to be sitting on the fence between consensus and care communication. I think that is a good place to be as you can approach from different angles. Although your topic might be frustrating at times and you might want to take the crisis category, I don’t think that’s the way to go.
You have a good blog here addressing a serious problem in America. Good work.
-Jay
Your topic is very closely related to mine, so I was really excited to read your post. In the last paragraph you talk about the difficulties facing your communication, including disputes over what should be taught in sex education classrooms. While I know that this controversy is a serious issue (it’s basically my topic), I think that for your purposes you should perhaps overlook it. When considering consensus communication efforts, maybe you should create methods that put the teenagers themselves in charge of forming solutions. I think that people are more likely to be responsive to risk communication when they helped to form it. Recent studies have suggested that teenagers are usually in favor of having sex education, even when their parents are not. Also because your topic is not an issue of the education process, but an issue of society, you may want to consider other outlets your information can go through.
You may not want to touch on this issue, but it’s unclear how you feel about the matter of abortion in relation to your topic. Is part of your communication going to tell girls how to avoid having an abortion? Or do you consider abortions part of the solution?
That’s just something for you to consider discussing in your future posts. In the mean time, good job on your work so far.
Christina
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