Agwu Prince, Mbachu Chinyere, Onwujekwe Obinna
Health Policy Research Group, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus, Enugu, Nigeria.
Education and Society, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Health Res Policy Syst. 2025 Jan 30;23(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s12961-024-01267-8.
There are massive gaps in communication between health researchers and policy-makers in Nigeria, which constrains the use of research evidence for policy-making. Mass media can help in bridging the gaps, especially since the media has the reach and a reputation for presenting information in ways that elicit actions from the public and policy-makers.
There is a small body of emerging literature from Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, evidencing the usefulness of the media to encourage evidence translation in the health sector; and even evidence translation theories are light on dissemination. This paper adds to knowledge on how academia and media can be linked for effective dissemination of evidence for policy impact.
Data were sourced from group discussions in a communications workshop with 27 participants comprising researchers in health systems and policy and media professionals with several years of experience.
It was found that health research evidence conducted using quality procedures and published in quality academic journals barely make it to public and policy-making conversations because of the restrictiveness that characterizes academic outputs in traditional academic dissemination outlets. On the basis of the cultivation theory, the media was found instrumental in feedback of research results to communities, securing policy-makers' reactions and stimulating policy actions.
In line with message system analysis, researchers must be strategic in the use of mass media, and our results showed how it can be done. In all, media usage for evidence translation has enormous potential to strengthen the health system.
在尼日利亚，卫生研究人员与政策制定者之间存在巨大的沟通差距，这限制了研究证据在政策制定中的应用。大众媒体有助于弥合这些差距，特别是因为媒体具有广泛的影响力，且在以能促使公众和政策制定者采取行动的方式呈现信息方面享有声誉。
尼日利亚和撒哈拉以南非洲地区有少量新出现的文献证明了媒体在促进卫生部门证据转化方面的作用；甚至证据转化理论在传播方面也较为薄弱。本文补充了关于学术界和媒体如何建立联系以有效传播证据从而产生政策影响的知识。
数据来源于一次沟通研讨会中的小组讨论，该研讨会有27名参与者，包括卫生系统和政策方面的研究人员以及有多年经验的媒体专业人员。
研究发现，采用高质量程序开展并发表在高质量学术期刊上的卫生研究证据，由于传统学术传播渠道中学术成果的局限性，几乎无法进入公众和政策制定的讨论中。基于培养理论，发现媒体在将研究结果反馈给社区、促使政策制定者做出反应以及推动政策行动方面发挥了作用。
根据信息系统分析，研究人员在使用大众媒体时必须讲究策略，我们的研究结果展示了如何做到这一点。总体而言，利用媒体进行证据转化在加强卫生系统方面具有巨大潜力。
