This blog offers a discussion of the possibilities of visual media and technology for health,education, communication and political action. Periodically, this blog is a collaborative effort with graduate students in public health at Hunter College, some of whom serve as guest bloggers and some of whom create their own blogs.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Public Health 2.0

JRanck has provided a terrific report that offers a descriptive overview of what we might call, "Public Health 2.0" - riffing on "Web 2.0" (hat tip: @MindofAndre). This is definitely worth a few minutes of your time:


Public Health 2.0: Re-Mixing Public Health

See especially about page 12 where he mentions Social Documentary and Witness as examples of the way that visual media are being deployed in the new technological landscape.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I went onto the Social Documentary website and looked through Anna Weaver’s “Your Country” collection featuring beautiful candid photos of the Luciano family, (a father, mother, their four children and another one on the way) who cannot afford to feed their growing family. To see the plight of this family (up close in plain black and white) is interesting—no one looks depressed or is crying; they’re simply doing what needs to be done in order to survive. With all the nonsense “reality” TV shows that bombard us on every channel, this collection depicts the stark, ultimate reality of how millions of people in this country’s life has been and will probably continue to be for a long time.

I think the Witness website is a great site that puts significant human rights issues on a platform that is accessible to millions around the world. This reminds me of the YouTube video that depicted the brutal killing of Neda, a young Iranian teenager who was protesting the election results. The disturbing image showing her bloody body and untimely death was seen by and touched the heart of millions. This kind of video along with this powerful website really opens up people’s eyes, especially those (including myself) in the West who know nothing of these injustices and cannot fathom treatment of this sort.