Social scientists who begin a public health education intervention by surveying the literature would be hard-pressed to find guidance about what to do and what to avoid when planning the media strategy of their campaign. What is needed is a media strategy to develop the greatest control possible over community exposure to the messages of the campaign. The planner is confronted with a number of factors and decisions when planning a media campaign: different media have different capabilities, many radio and television stations frequently run public service announcements when they cannot sell commercial time, different people use different media at different times, and the audience may be fragmented. Two current public health interventions that demonstrate well-constructed mixes of available media are the California Alcohol Problems Prevention Demonstration Project and the Stanford Heart Disease Prevention Program Five-City Project. The two approaches--one with the luxury of a sizable campaign budget and another with a minimum of funds--can provide models for planning the use of various media that should be at the planner's disposal. In any case, audience delivery can always be estimated, given access to the appropriate resource materials. For example, audience use across media can be determined through a standardized process of computing multiple ratings and then eliminating duplication of people who utilize more than one medium. Through judicious planning, as well as with the cooperation of the media, both broadly based and specifically focused media strategies are achievable. (HOD)