Media Products

SRF’s initiative directed at the Hispanic community “El Genoma Human a su Alcance” or “The Human Genome Is Within Your Reach” was an educational project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and designed to inform Spanish-speaking adults about the scientific, ethical, legal and social issues related to the human genome.  The project included public information messages in Spanish, disseminated through both print media and radio, and ended in 2008.

The radio programs developed by SRF provided interesting information about genetics, with the goal of peaking the curiosity of listeners to learn more about the human genome.  Some programs also featured interviews with Hispanic researchers discussing the discoveries of the human genome project.

A complementary website was also developed to make information about the human genome more interesting and accessible to the general Spanish-speaking public.   Issues related to genetics and bioethics were emphasized, like the importance of creating a record of family health history. Visit the website at www.nuestrogenoma.org

Click here to listen to a Genoma Humana radio spot

To help inform and further empower the Latino population in the United States, SRF’s Acceso Hispano initiative recently launched an interactive, multi-dimensional online presence with several innovative features.

The main platform, housed at the website www.accesohispano.org includes four different interfaces directed at four different target audiences:

• English (designed to inform stakeholders about issues facing the Latino community)
• Spanish (designed to reach Spanish-language dominant Hispanics with relevant articles about issues that affect them, in addition to links to helpful websites or organizations)
• Service Providers (developed to help community-based service providers across the country better serve the Latino community by providing tailored information and resources)
• Promotores (to help Acceso Hispano’s network of community-based promoters better serve the community)

The different sections of the Acceso Hispano website include features to help facilitate communication with the public including newsletters; discussion forums; calls for articles from the public; SMS texting capacity; events calendars; comments; email forms; visual search features and more.

The website is designed to complement Acceso Hispano’s toll-free bilingual telephone hotline which provides free information and referrals to callers around the country related to job training, ESL classes, scholarship opportunities, health care options, voter registration sites, domestic violence shelters, and a vast array of other services requested by the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community.  To ensure that the community has access to the culturally-sensitive community based services that they need at any time of day, Acceso Hispano is developing a searchable web-based database of providers.  Service providers can easily update their information online, search the database to help make referrals for their clients, and the general public can conduct instantaneous searches for the specialized services available in their own communities.

Click here to download a brochure about Acceso Hispano.

On November 12, 2008, the Department of Justice launched a new National Public Awareness Campaign along with several Project Safe Childhood (PSC) partners, including SRF. PSC was introduced to the public in 2006 to combat the increase of sexual predators using the Internet to entice and sexually exploit children in the United States. SRF subcontracted Hispanic Communications Network (HCN), iKeepSafe, and INOBTR (”I Know Better”) to develop a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) for the Spanish-speaking Hispanic population in the U.S.

The campaign garnered over 86 million media impressions via television; over 44 million media impressions via radio; over 42 million media impressions via the Internet; and over 450,000 media impressions via pre-film commercials in movie theaters.

Why Internet Safety? One in seven children in the United States receives a sexual message via Internet each year.  48% of mothers admit they don’t know what their children do online.  Nearly 7% of 12-14 year-olds have received a request for a nude photo of themselves and 14% of 12-14 year olds have participated in a sexual chatroom.  Among teens these numbers rise substantially.  Over half of all teens receive requests for personal information about themselves, 54% have private online conversations with strangers via instant messaging, and 77% have a personal online profile viewable by anyone.

The television spots produced by SRF include:

Depredadores Encuentran a Tus Hijos por Internet:  An announcement targeting parents, encouraging them to supervise and get involved in their children’s Internet use to keep them from predators.

No Arruines Tu Vida: An announcement targeting potential Internet predators, educating them onthe consequences of publishing child pornography or targeting minors via the Internet.  This is particularly important for immigrants coming from countries with different definitions of “minors” and predatory behavior.

The Truth Behind the Screen: A three-part series directed at parents to raise awareness of the importance of supervising their children’s Internet activity.

A website was also created to support the campaign at www.protegelosahora.org by iKeepSafe.

This project was supported by Grant No. 2007-JL-FX-K009 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions expressed here do not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

ConCienciaNews.com is a project designed by SRF, developed and implemented in collaboration with Hispanic Communications Network (HCN), and financed by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

ConCiencia News is the first Spanish-language news service in the United States focused exclusively on health, science and environmental news.  SRF distributes news via ConCiencia free of cost to a diverse array of Hispanic media including 100+ newspapers and magazines, top Hispanic web portals, and almost 150 Spanish-language radio stations.  Each news story features original content developed by SRF journalists, and Hispanic reasearchers are often features to serve as role models for the public.

Why ConCiencia News Service?

The reduction of staff and consolidation of the media has left few resources for local Spanish-language media to offer scientific information to their Latino audiences.  Current studies reveal that Latinos score well below average in math and science in public schools, and are poorly represented in professions related to science and engineering.  To help address these challenges, SRF provides Hispanic media with a continuous source of high-quality scientific news adapted to the needs and interests of the Hispanic community.  This service increases the capacity of Spanish-language news agencies to offer better scientific content.

The market for Spanish-language news media in the United States is broad and growing.  Currently there are more than 1,500 Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. with a circulation of more than 42 million people, and 1,000 Spanish-language radio stations on the air around the country reaching millions of listeners each day.  In addition the Hispanic online presence is growing steadily.

ConCiencia News is supported by an Advisory Committee comprised of experts in the science field and members of the National Association for Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).

Click here to download a brochure about the ConCiencia News service.