Media Effectiveness on Addiction Prevention: challenges and approaches

Role of media, especially national/mass media on health promotion and drug use prevention is very important. A media program also must be designed in an evidence-based approach. In message development, target audience analysis (condition/stratification) and channels of communication must be considered. Now in many media productions there isn’t adequate attention to scientific bases of addiction and effectiveness aspects of interventions. This deficit can lead to new incorrect believes, strengthening of the past incorrect believes or result to under estimation of substance use harms and also some people think that treatment of addiction is simple. In the other hand, some media production can lead to promotion of un-scientific treatment methods. In this article we review types of media, their strengths and weaknesses, important aspects in media programs designing for children and adolescents, and finally we argue about frequently asked questions (FAQ); because awareness of media professionals about the science of addiction has an important role in producing of effective media productions.