Tower to Town is an experimental blog for Oregon State University graduate students in Public Health to explore and communicate health related scientific findings to the general public. This experiment is modeled after the science blog: Mind the Science Gap http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/.

Each week, students will post their response to a challenge presented by the instructor.These challenges range from showcasing diverse perspectives on health issues,  translating recent scientific findings to non-technical audiences, to developing and disseminating their own health promotion messages. They will publish on this site and be responsible for public dissemination and interactions through other media channels such as Instagram and Twitter.

The goal of this experience is to teach students how to effectively communicate complex  ideas to non-expert audiences, while also maintaining ethical and responsible journalistic standards. The contributors to this blog are learning and as such they may occasionally misinterpret, misrepresent, or in make naive statements. Please engage with the authors to help them improve and learn from their errors, miss steps, and what they may have done right! Remember, the goal here is to provide the opportunity to develop students’ communication skill sets. Comments and shares are welcome!

About the Instructor

Kari-Lyn Sakuma is an Assistant Professor in Health Promotion and Health Behavior in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University. This blog is part of the H549: Mass Media and Health course. Tower to Town represents the views of the contributing authors. It does not necessarily represent the views of the course instructor or the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University. This is a learning environment and as such, the accuracy of posts cannot be guaranteed. Readers are encouraged to engage with the authors on addressing them through posting comments.  (Updated Jan 3 2017)