Safe Images Media Watch

I think every hygienist I know gets upset when they watch a TV show or movie where people are conducting some kind of industrial work with out any personal protective equipment, guarded machinery, or with disregard for safety procedures. It never occurred to me that OSH professionals could influence and educate the media folks.

This is an interesting intersection of safety and sociology. Acknowledging that our attitudes, beliefs, and world views are shaped in part by the messages we get from media, the Children’s Agricultural Safety Network has published guidelines to help media present responsible images of farm and agricultural work, and to promote a culture of safety. Researchers and professionals who see unsafe images, film, or descriptions in news reports are encouraged to contact the channel, reporter, producer, etc and refer them to the media guidelines.  Some of the guidelines remind of a recent research article that looked at media reports of agricultural accidents and classified the ‘take home messages’: less than a quarter of them had a prevention message.   I hope that over time, shifting the conversation towards prevention can have an impact.

I also think it would be great to have OSH media guidelines like this for other industries and for media representations/reports of violence against women.