We have defined media as using communication outlets (such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, posters and the internet) to reach local, regional, national or global audiences and share first aid information. The media outlet should be appropriate for the audience, and the message should contain authentic, relevant content that is engaging, entertaining and educational.
Guidelines
- Media may be used to:
> increase awareness of first aid or the motivation to learn it *
> change attitudes and beliefs about first aid *
> increase first aid knowledge.* - Media may not be an effective method to improve skills or specific actions associated with providing first aid. *
The following recommendations are for first aid programme designers and the marketing and communications teams with which they work.
- Media may be used intensively over time to repeat multiple, refined messages aimed at a target audience. *
> Messaging may be most effective when it is specific to a target audience and communicated through the appropriate outlet.
> Collaboration between programme designers, or marketing teams, with a target audience may produce authentic and relevant educational content.
Good practice points
- Collaborating with community broadcasters and building relationships with journalists may provide opportunities to influence and optimise content and the timing of broadcasts, as well as encourage the inclusion of appropriate and timely first aid education.
- Media is competitive; content should be engaging, entertaining and educational.
- Media may be used to reach a broad audience for a relatively low cost.
- Radio may provide the opportunity to engage with audiences who are harder to reach.
- Narrowcasting may be an effective method to communicate very specific messages.
- In a water safety context, media may be considered as part of a multi-approach to inform people of the risks, safe behaviours and how to access help.
- Communities should engage in water safety programmes to generate a collective understanding of the dangers and preventative strategies for activities in, on or near water.
- Social media may be used to enhance the reach of media broadcasts and collect audience feedback.
Chain of survival behaviours
Media can be used to support the prevent and prepare domain of the Chain of survival behaviours by raising awareness and communicating the necessary response to different first aid emergencies.
Education considerations
Context considerations
- When prioritising where to spend your money and effort, it is important to understand the cost and reach of different media outlets in your country.
- Carefully consider how to best reach your target audience. Some countries are oversaturated with media; therefore, selecting the timing, the key message and getting creative with your delivery method is important.
- Combine media messaging with other approaches to shape policies and practices in your area.
- First aid emergencies are covered daily in news media but do not always inform audiences of the relevant preventative actions or first aid steps (Pribble et al., 2008). Share informative images and soundbites with journalists who need content for a story.
Learner considerations
- Consider the population’s literacy level and select the appropriate media outlet that will best engage people. Consult the target audience on which media outlets they prefer to use.
Facilitation tips
- Have subject matter experts or spokespeople share specialised information with specific media channels (e.g., have a wilderness first aid expert provide tips to a publication or televised programme that focuses on the outdoors).
- Use testimonials from people who have seen or heard first aid media content and intend to change their behaviour because of it. This may encourage others to change too.
- Be creative when developing media content (e.g., use a song or fun facts to engage people).
- Include the target audience when developing key messages and media content to ensure it resonates with them and is culturally appropriate.
- Use stories that reflect your message and connect with your target audience.
- Measure educational outcomes by observing behavioural changes over time (e.g., the rate at which medical care was appropriately accessed or the number of people who provided first aid before accessing medical care).
- Avoid using media that you have not validated for accuracy as some YouTube videos and television commercials demonstrate first aid skills incorrectly or provide false information.
Benefits and limitations
- Media should not be used as a standalone educational strategy, but it can remind people how to respond in specific emergencies.
- Most media delivery methods require educational messages to be concise and may limit the amount of information that can be communicated.
- Media may be expensive to produce, especially at a high quality.
- It may be challenging to measure the media outlet’s effectiveness as an educational tool.
- There is no way of knowing if the published or broadcasted content reached the intended audience.
- There is little evidence that media content can be used to develop first aid skills effectively.
Scientific foundation
Our review looked into whether media exposure, compared to other learning methods, has an impact on the learner or person in need of care. There were many variables in the evidence, including the degree of media saturation, type and quality of media, measured outcomes and intervention aims. These variables made it difficult to compare studies. Additionally, very few high-quality studies have been completed in this field and the available evidence varies significantly. This does not mean the available papers are poor quality, rather that more high-quality studies are needed to make a proper comparison.
We identified eight papers and included four in this review. The papers examined different media interventions and measured different outcomes.
1. The first paper covered the use of a 30-second public service broadcast and measured participants’ knowledge, awareness and intent to perform CPR on a stranger. The randomised experimental study included 384 participants. The intervention group demonstrated significantly more knowledge and awareness of the campaign than the control group. However, there was no difference in the intent to perform CPR (Meischke et al., 1999).
2. The second paper looked at a very brief video broadcast on closed-circuit televisions, shown to people in a hospital waiting room. The participants were then assessed on their skills and ability to perform CPR. One hundred participants took part in a non-randomised prospective controlled before-and-after study. The intervention group (who watched the video) showed a statistically significant improvement in perfect compression-only CPR, as well as in chest compression rate and depth. However, this study had several limitations: the intervention group was passively exposed to the video and there was no means of testing behaviour changes in a real emergency after the study (Benoit et al., 2017).
3. The third paper discussed a non-randomised observational study that looked at the use of public service announcements on broadcast television. The study examined medical records to measure the actual rates of bystander CPR and found a significant increase in the intervention group. However, the study was weakened by the fact that the quality of CPR was not tested, and post-intervention data was not collected (Becker et al., 1999).
4. The final paper looked at a randomised controlled trial that took place over 18 months in 20 paired cities. The study used mixed media, including public service announcements and newspaper articles. It measured the outcomes of actual behaviour (from the time of symptom onset to arrival at the emergency department) and use of emergency medical services, as well as first aid knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. The results showed that there was no difference in statistical significance between the intervention and control groups in regard to actual behaviour. However, there was a significant increase in the appropriate use of emergency medical services in the intervention group.
There was also evidence of increased public awareness and knowledge of the programme’s messages, including the symptoms and appropriate first aid steps for a heart attack (Luepker et al., 2000).
We also identified additional literature specific to water safety education, an area that commonly uses a variety of media messaging formats. In their reviews of drowning prevention literature, Leavy, Crawford, and Leaversuch (2016) and Leavy, Crawford, and Portsmouth (2017) found that the learning outcomes from informational and educational campaigns varied. As such, they caution against relying on a campaign approach as a solitary strategy. They also noted the lack of insight on multi-approach strategies to water safety education as a gap in the available literature.
Additional information
- The effects of a media campaign may lessen once it is over (Eppler et al., 1994).
- Film and television often show incorrect first aid, which may contribute to common misconceptions. For example, television will typically show a person spontaneously start to breathe again after a very short period of CPR. This may lead viewers to falsely believe that they only need to perform CPR for a short time before the person starts to breathe again (Alismail et al., 2018; Colwill et al., 2018).
References
Alismail, A., Meyer, N. C., Almutairi, W., & Daher, N. S. (2018). CPR in medical TV shows: non-health care student perspective. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 9, 85.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5808693/
Becker, L., Vath, J., Eisenberg, M., & Meischke, H. (1999). The impact of television public service announcements on the rate of bystander CPR. Prehospital Emergency Care, 3(4), 353–356.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10903129908958968
Benoit, J. L., Vogele, J., Hart, K. W., Lindsell, C. J., & McMullan, J. T. (2017). Passive ultra-brief video training improves performance of compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Resuscitation, 115, 116–119.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300957217301594
Colwill, M., Somerville, C., Lindberg, E., Williams, C., Bryan, J., & Welman, T. (2018). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation on television: are we miseducating the public?. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 94(1108), 71–75.
https://pmj.bmj.com/content/postgradmedj/94/1108/71.full.pdf
Eppler, E., Eisenberg, M. S., Schaeffer, S., Meischke, H., & Larson, M. P. (1994). 911 and emergency department use for chest pain: results of a media campaign. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 24(2), 202–208.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196064494701318
Leavy, J. E., Crawford, G., Leaversuch, F., Nimmo, L., McCausland, K., & Jancey, J. (2016). A review of drowning prevention interventions for children and young people in high, low and middle income countries. Journal of Community Health, 41(2), 424–441.
https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/28459/234402_234402.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
Leavy, J. E., Crawford, G., Portsmouth, L., Jancey, J., Leaversuch, F., Nimmo, L., & Hunt, K. (2015). Recreational drowning prevention interventions for adults, 1990–2012: a review. Journal of Community Health, 40(4), 725–735.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-015-9991-6
Luepker, R. V., Raczynski, J. M., Osganian, S., Goldberg, R. J., Finnegan, Jr, J. R., Hedges, J. R., Goff, Jr, D. C., Eisenberg, M. S., Zapka, J. G., Feldman, H. A., Labarthe, D. R., McGovern, P. G., Cornell, C. E., Proschan, M. A., & Simons-Morton, D. G. (2000). Effect of a community intervention on patient delay and emergency medical service use in acute coronary heart disease. JAMA, 284(1), 60–67.
http://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.1.60
Meischke, H., Finnegan, J., & Eisenberg, M. (1999). What can you teach about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in 30 seconds? Evaluation of a television campaign. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 22(1), 44–59.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016327879902200103
Pribble, J. M., Trowbridge, M. J., Kamat, S. V., Fowler, E. F., Goldstein, K. M., & Hargarten, S. W. (2008). Injury reporting on local TV news: a prime-time opportunity for prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(5), 420–423.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074937970800161X
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