The Role of Media in Men's Health Promotion – Speech by the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Guangming Daily

The role of media in promoting men's health

He Dongping, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Guangming Daily

It was very meaningful for experts, leaders, journalists, and business representatives from all walks of life to gather together to discuss issues that are related to the happiness and well-being of every family but have long been neglected.

The "New Trends in Marriage and Childbearing" campaign has been carried out nationwide for many years, with the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the National Population and Family Planning Commission attaching great importance to it. Concepts such as "late marriage and late childbearing," "fewer births and better births," "boys and girls are equal," and "male participation in family planning" have been widely disseminated, promoting the implementation of the basic national policy of family planning and social progress. This should be fully affirmed.

At the same time, we still have much work to do. To further promote the concept of husbands' responsibility in family planning, address concerns and doubts regarding male reproductive health, create a happy and harmonious married life, and improve the quality of family life, the Publicity and Education Department of the National Population and Family Planning Commission has included "Focusing on Men's Health" on its agenda and plans to launch my country's first "Men's Health Day" publicity campaign on October 28th in 15 cities across the country. Today's expert seminar is a prelude to this publicity campaign.

Our Guangming Daily is a newspaper led and sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, primarily targeting the intellectual community. Our Science and Technology Department's column on popular science knowledge about male reproductive health has garnered significant attention from readers. This seminar was jointly organized by us and the Male Health Publicity and Education Project Office. We believe that through our efforts, the neglect of men's health will gradually change.

According to our newspaper's computer search system, since 1996, the term "men's health" has largely not appeared in major Chinese news media. It has appeared in *Guangming Daily* and *Life Times*, a newspaper published by *Guangming Daily*, but only infrequently. The situation improved significantly after *Guangming Daily* launched a column on male reproductive health science, with both *Guangming Daily* and *Life Times* publishing articles and reports promoting "men's health" knowledge and the establishment of "Men's Health Day." Professional magazines cover this topic more frequently. Internationally, there is a magazine in the United States whose name translates directly to "Men's Health." The United Kingdom also has a dedicated men's health magazine called *ZM*. Both of these magazines have been cited by Chinese media.

As a news organization, we have a responsibility to increase our reporting and public education on men's health, male reproductive health, and family planning, and to strengthen scientific and cultural exchanges on physiological health between China and other countries, so as to contribute to the construction of a new reproductive culture and the long-term well-being of the Chinese nation.

Thank you everyone!