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PHIUP MORRIS ........... coaroe.n ~r~~es Friday, December 3, 1986 58 THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY. JANUARY 2. 1998 ~Pril~"! Contact: S. Sarro, Ext. 3454 Harvard School of Public health to encourage media health coverage 13y Richard A. Knox Globe Staff The Harvard School of Public Health has announced an initia- tive to educate the public about good health habits and to "deepen media coverage of health." Harvard officials said the cen- ter will pursue a variety of strate- gies, including seeking an in- crease in visibility for such prob- lems as teen-age suicide, drunken driving, stress and smoking. According to the school's offi- dals, the newly established Har- vard Center for Health Communi- cations will act both as an advo- cate for under-covered health is- sues and as a kind of truth squad to, sort through "contradictory, confusing and unreliable" media coverage of major health issues. Although a press release identi- fled the center's aims as to be "a reporter of news" and "a correc- tive force." its director. Jay A. Winsten, said in an Interview: "Our primary goal is to be a re- source for the press, not to be the press. In a sense, we will act as staff to journalists." "What this is not about," he added. "is public relations. It's not ' PR for the Harvard School of Pub- lic Health." Winsten said the cen- ter will call upon experts from many institutions. Inareasfai visibility The center also plans to run osraaTrwT E X E C U T I V E E D I T I O N seminars for public officials on how to use mass media effectively and perhaps book them on talk shows to exploit what Winsten calls "targets of opportunity" - news events that might serve as vehicles for public health mes- sages. "Rather than waiting for calls from reporters." Winsten said. "we will take-the initiative to pro- vide perspective on the news and raise new issues. No one in acade- mia is doing this sort of thing." When an issue already gets prominent coverage, the center's strategy will be to find fresh an- gles. For instance. Winsten said, tt_ may pro uce an in~-d~e t~h briefln 'paper on n Z otine's ac~dictive_ pro r erf' es, raw n on e a esLre- seach. T i~s information, he not- m ave s%n can mp -_ ca ons n courfbaes of~I ver to- acco com n es a i it or ci a- re e-re a disease an eat . In recen years, nsten, a mi- crobiologist by training, has be- come a critic of media coverage of health issues. "One concern of mine," he said last week. "is that. there are still too many single- source stories and single-study stories. One of our goals is to en- courage tnclusion of the trend of research" in media coverage of a given issue. Unlike other media resource centers funded by industry. Win- sten asserted. the Harvard center will have no axe to grind other than improving the public's health. "There will be no hidden agenda." he claimed. The budget and board The new center's $200,000 an- nual budget will come mainly from a$120.000 grant from the Ruth Mott Fund and a$60,000 gift from Ivan F. Boesky, a New York financier and philanthropist whose fortune comes from arbi- trage. the takeover of one publicly traded firm by another. Boesky al- ready funds a visiting fellowship at the school for professional jour- nalists. The center's advisory board is chaired by former US surgeon gen- eral Julius Richmond, now direc- tor of Harvard's Division of Health Policy Research and Education. Other board members include NBC newsman John Chancellor. David Perlman of the San Francis- co Chronicle, former CBS presi- dent Frank Stanton, New England Journal of Medicine editor Arnold Reiman, former Federal Trade Commission chairman Michael Pertschuk. Nieman Foundation director Howard Simons, Harvard legal medicine scholar William J. Curran, Stephen Havas of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Joann Rodgers of the Johns Hopkins University medical institutions in Baltimore.