SEATTLE TIMES ASKS, "DOES GATES FUNDING OF MEDIA TAINT OBJECTIVITY?"

PBS's Rx for Survival - A Global Health Challenge

By Anne Zeiser

The Seattle Times recently questioned whether the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's media partnerships taint their objectivity. The Foundation's global health partnerships with ABC, PBS, NYT, The Guardian, HuffPost are neither unethical, nor novel. They are about public education on an underacknowledged issue that affects us all -- global health.

Gates' first major global health media partnership, which set the stage for these future forays, was with PBS in 2005 on a multi-platform, multi-year global health project and impact campaign, Rx for Survival - A Global Health Challenge. PBS created a global health transmedia blitz with cross-platform editorial partnerships: an Emmy award-winning PBS documentary narrated by Brad Pitt; a special global health issue of Time magazine, an international Time Global Health Summit with world leaders, content in Time for Kids; 13 global health installments on NPR programs such as "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered"; and a companion book by Penguin Press, penned by Phil Hilts. 

And to translate audiences' awareness and understanding from the high-profile media elements into engagement and action, the project's social impact campaign, Rx for Child Survival had engagement initiatives for both the public (families, communities, students) and influencers (educators, press, public officials).  It forged impact partnerships with CARE, Save the Children, UNICEF, Rotary, Girl Scouts, the American Academy of Pediatrics, John's Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Global Health Council,  GAVI, and PBS's 350 local stations. The vast array of audience participation -- from a new Girl Scouts global health patch and faith-based month of prayer to a new undergraduate course in global health and a newsroom guide for reporting on global health --  raised institutional, community, and individual awareness; spawned dialogue and engagement; and gathered resources and support for global health and child survival.

Given the Seattle Times concern about Gates' coziness with media outlets, highlighting some of the comprehensive developmental research from Rx for Survival is worthwhile. A survey of media outlets across the country showed journalists were neither equipped -- because of the complexity of the subject, nor assigned global health stories by their editor bosses -- due to the perception that global health was not relevant to domestic audiences. Global health fell through the cracks of health care (Medicare and domestic issues) and foreign beats. There was only one global health reporter at any newspaper in the U.S., covered by John Donnelly at the Boston Globe. (That beat has since been eliminated). 

So Rx for Survival and the Gates Foundation understood that one of the myriad goals of this huge project was educating journalists on how to cover the complicated subject of global health and show its relevance to U.S. audiences. Tools included a Newsroom Guide (reprinted due to huge journalist demand) that helped them interpret WHO and other statistics, editorial board meetings with top media outlets on how global health affects Americans, and a National Press Foundation journalists' educational event, filmed and posted online by Kaiser as an ongoing resource for all journalists. (In addition, the project developed tools and curricula for educators and events on the Hill with Congress and the Global Health Caucus).

Shortly after Rx for Survival's launch, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono were named Time's people of the year, putting global health and poverty on the forefront of American's consciousness. Since then, some major global health victories have occurred due to heightened awareness of global health: 2008 saw tripled U.S. funding for AIDS, malaria and TB and the first year worldwide child deaths dipped below 10,000. With Rx for Survival, the Gates Foundation recognized the critical role of media in creating awareness and understanding -- the precursor to true engagement and action -- around an important issue. Their ongoing work in-country and with the media will only further those advances. 

(I managed the transmedia blitz and social impact campaign for Rx for Survival and many other similar projects for PBS/WGBH in my decade there. As founder of Azure Media, I develop high-profile transmedia projects that fuel social impact.)