Over the last few years, we have learned that health is a deeply felt, universal experience intersected by a number of systems — political, racial, economic. From food to insurance to fitness to vaccinations, we all have different understandings of what “health” is, seen through the values we hold and the specific stories we consume. Given these differences, how might we move towards a future where people in the U.S. believe that healthcare systems are not only accessible and available to all, but also recognize and rectify past and current injustices?

As the nation’s largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has been working to help achieve health equity and expand opportunities to pursue the best health possible. In 2021, RWJF enlisted our support to help with their narrative efforts around this goal. Using the Narrative Observatory @Harmony Labs, we’re building an audience-narrative architecture that allows RWJF and its partners to develop content that will change the narrative on health equity for key audiences.

We are excited to share this public report about our initial research findings on audiences and the health equity narrative landscapes they inhabit as a result of their media consumption choices. These findings are already helping us surface the most promising story opportunities for testing and, ultimately, the kinds of content RWJF and its partners might make to guide audiences toward a more equitable health future.

Our next steps, working alongside Story Strategy Group and a diverse group of storytellers, will be to create content we can test to accomplish this goal. Follow this space for results of this testing in the upcoming months, as well as more about how we approached this research and the insights gained over the course of this project.