by Rachel Uda | Katie Couric Media
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
“History has shown us time and again that shock value isn’t very effective,” Heather Gehlert, communications manager at the Berkeley Media Studies Group, tells KCM.
“Connecting to audiences and evoking empathy is critical, but graphic photos aren’t the way to go about it,” Gehlert says. “We can connect through stories from survivors, and we can foster dialogue without using approaches that have the potential to retraumatize people and exploit their pain.”
by Janet Nguyen | Marketplace
Friday, March 18, 2022
In a conversation with Marketplace reporter Janet Nguyen, BMSG’s Heather Gehlert explains why effective public health messaging has to go beyond what’s being said and consider who’s doing the speaking. In the case of booster shots, pharmaceutical companies are likely not the most effective messenger. As Gehlert says, “No matter the message, we have to hear it from trusted local voices who look and sound like the communities they are speaking to.”
by Chinyere Amobi | USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Recently, health officials and politicians have been using the term “endemic” as a synonym for a future sense of normalcy “post-pandemic.” While the idea of no longer having to think about COVID-19 and accepting unchecked viral spread as a regular part of life might be a relief to some who are protected by vaccines and boosters (and those who have refused both), several segments of the U.S. will continue to bear the brunt of the virus in favor of everyone else’s comfort. In this piece for the USC Center for Health Journalism, BMSG Strategic Communication Specialist Chinyere Amobi writes about why for immunocompromised people like herself, the idea of endemic COVID-19 spread is far from comforting. Her piece also appears in Croakey Health Media.
by Susie Nielson | San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, February 07, 2022
Maps show that San Francisco neighborhoods are experiencing crime trends differently and along economic lines, with the recent wave of high-profile robberies in richer neighborhoods receiving coverage over crimes in neighborhoods that typically see high crime rates. This may be why a recent poll found that an increasing number of people believe crime in the city is getting worse, despite historical trends, explains BMSG Head of Research Pamela Mejia, in this piece for the
San Francisco Chronicle. “When the media covers crime, it tends to focus on individual incidents, particularly unusual-seeming ones,” writes reporter Susie Neilson, speaking to Mejia. “That’s why shootings in neighborhoods with traditionally high crime rates get relatively less coverage, or no coverage at all. But when
a Louis Vuitton store gets broken into in a high-income part of town, that feels unusual and surprising, and is thus amplified. Sensationalized media coverage of crime thus contributes to wide-scale misperceptions of crime trends. Meijia said it also engenders a feeling of hopelessness because it often does not cover solutions or efforts to change the problem, or look at underlying issues.”
by Amanda Darrach | Columbia Journalism Review
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review, BMSG Head of Research Pamela Mejia discusses the media environment surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and sexual violence. She notes how coverage was often framed from his perspective rather than that of his victims and describes problematic language used to describe Epstein’s behavior. “‘He had a sexual relationship with a minor,’ for example,” Pamela Mejia said. “All these phrases and frames use some kind of language that conveys consent and soft-pedals what we know to be happening. … I’ve been absolutely infuriated by the use of phrases like ‘underage women’ or ‘young woman,’ when they’re talking about a child.”
by Gwen McKinney | Editor & Publisher
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Recent BMSG research has found that older Black women are sorely underrepresented as hosts, contributors, and experts during the coveted primetime hours at the three major cable news networks. In response to these findings, the Unerased | Black Women Speak initiative has created an online directory of sources to help journalists feature more diverse voices in their programs.
by Brian Malte | CalMatters
Thursday, December 02, 2021
In this commentary for CalMatters, Hope and Heal Fund Director Brian Malte recommends four steps we can take to achieve comprehensive and dramatic reductions in gun violence and firearm suicide over the next 5 years. His suggestions include changing the media narrative on violence, which BMSG research has shown provides a distorted view of what types of violence are the most common, who is the most affected, and how communities of color are portrayed. Malte’s article also appeared in the San Francisco Examiner and Marin Independent Journal.
by Isra Shams | Monthly Brands
Friday, November 19, 2021
BMSG has joined a range of privacy, consumer, and health groups in urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate TikTok’s practices, which advocates say violate children’s online privacy protections. “We found that TikTok currently has many regular account holders who are under age 13, and many of them still have videos of themselves that were uploaded as far back as 2016, years prior to the consent decree,” the groups said in their complaint to the FTC.
by Gwen McKinney | Next Avenue
Thursday, September 30, 2021
New research from BMSG reveals a dearth of older Black female voices in primetime cable news programs. In this commentary for Next Avenue, which also appears in Forbes, Gwen McKinney from the Unerased | Black Women Speak initiative makes the case that diversifying the speakers on cable TV would strengthen our national discourse and attract more viewers, benefiting news producers and consumers alike. The research received additional coverage in journal-isms.
by Elena Gooray | VICE
Thursday, September 16, 2021
For Black and Latino communities that already have higher rates of diabetes and obesity, fast-food advertising adds another layer to intergenerational health inequities. However, the issue extends beyond food companies, reaching into the world of Big Tech, explains BMSG Director Lori Dorfman: “The biggest marketers to kids right now are Google and Facebook.” Dorfman’s words have also appeared in the blog Food Processing.
