Helping consumers weigh the benefits of eating seafood against the risks and weed out misinformation about fish is the foundation of a new website and the basis of Thursday’s SeafoodSource webinar.
Titled “Framing the Message about Seafood,” the webinar kicks off SeafoodSource’s 2012 webinar lineup as well as a series of communication-themed webinars and conferences.
Launched last September, the site, www.seafoodhealthfacts.org, evolved out of an initiative dubbed “Seafood Health Facts: Making Smart Choices” and was developed largely through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
During Thursday’s 90-minute webinar, two of the initiative’s researchers, Doris Hicks of the University of Delaware Sea Grant program and Ken Gall of Cornell University and the New York Sea Grant program, will talk about what seafood and health professionals can do to better communicate seafood health and safety to consumers. (Researchers from Oregon State University and the universities of Rhode Island, Florida and California also participated in the project.)
Hicks and Gall will also talk about why consumers — and even many health professionals — know so little about fish. Following their 30-minute presentation, they will be available to answer questions from the audience.
“Framing the Message about Seafood” is the first in a series of three communication-themed webinars and conferences scheduled for February and March. Next up is a conference titled “Stuck at 16: Persuading Americans to Eat More Fish” that will take place on 12 March during the International Boston Seafood Show. During this free 90-minute discussion, the results of a SeafoodSource consumer survey on Americans’ finfish-purchasing behaviors at the retail level will be summarized, springboarding into a much larger discussion on educating consumers.
Then, on 27 March, SeafoodSource is hosting a webinar titled “Communication 101: Making Seafood Easier to Digest” in which participants will learn about best practices for communicating with media, seafood professionals and consumers, from distributing newsletters to capitalizing on social media.
Thursday’s “Framing the Message about Seafood” webinar will take place at 2 p.m. EST and is available only to SeafoodSource premium members. Click here to sign up.
Hope to see you on Thursday.
