George Washington University
Friday, October 12, 2018
Nurses continue to be underrepresented as sources in health news stories despite their increasing levels of education and expertise, found new research from BMSG and the George Washington University School of Nursing’s Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement. The research, a replication of the 1997 “Woodhull Study on Nursing and the Media,” discovered that nurses were identified as sources in just 2 percent of health news coverage and mentioned in 13 percent of health news coverage overall.
by Heather Gehlert | Civil Eats
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
This article for Civil Eats highlights a recent case study from BMSG, which shows how advocates in Sacramento are using a combination of community organizing, strategic communication, and policy change to make the city’s farm-to-fork movement more equitable and just.
by Wendy Davis | MediaPost
Monday, August 13, 2018
BMSG was one of 20 groups that signed on to a letter asking lawmakers to reject industry requests to water down the state’s new privacy law. The rules, which will take effect in January of 2020, allow consumers to learn what personal information businesses hold about them, and to opt out of the sale of that information.
by Jessica Beard and Jim MacMillan | The Philadelphia Inquirer
Friday, August 03, 2018
In this op-ed for the Inquirer, a public health researcher and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who now directs the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting make the case for a different approach to gun violence prevention — and a strong role for journalists in covering solutions. Citing research from BMSG, they argue that journalists should “ask questions about the context of gun violence, cultivate sources beyond police and prosecutors, and expand coverage to include other sectors, such as policy, education, health care, and business.”
by Mike Weisser | Mike the Gun Guy
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Mike Weisser summarizes new BMSG research on news portrayals of gun violence and refers to the report as a “significant and necessary contribution to helping the gun-control community figure out how to effectively frame their narratives about gun violence.”
by Lisette Hilton | Nurse.com
Monday, May 14, 2018
Nurse representation in media coverage has not improved in the last 20 years, found researchers from the George Washington University School of Nursing and Berkeley Media Studies Group. “One place where nurses were conspicuously absent — where they were neither mentioned nor quoted — was in news about health care policy,” BMSG Senior Media Researcher Laura Nixon said.
by Lori Dorfman | Sacramento Bee
Thursday, May 03, 2018
Following Stephon Clark’s tragic death at the hands of police, BMSG Director Lori Dorfman makes the case that California’s windfall from marijuana taxes should be used to “rectify the devastation that old marijuana laws wrought in certain Sacramento neighborhoods.” Then, she writes, the state and nation can “learn and follow.”
by Robin Kurzer | Marketing Land
Monday, April 09, 2018
A coalition of 23 consumer, privacy, and public health groups, including the Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group, have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission charging YouTube with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and failing to even to try to comply with COPPA. The action follows increased scrutiny of how companies like Google (which owns YouTube) and Facebook are handling consumer data. This issue received extensive media coverage, including in TechCrunch and The New York Times.
by Eileen Drage O'Reilly | Axios
Monday, March 26, 2018
Seventy-six percent of sports sponsors promoted food and drinks with a low nutrient profile, and 52 percent showcased sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. “The marketing association with sports is especially insidious because it gives the product a ‘health halo’ distracting from its health harms,” said BMSG’s director Lori Dorfman.
by Dan Vergano | BuzzFeed
Monday, March 19, 2018
In a speech about ways to curb the country’s opioid epidemic, President Trump announced support for Reagan-era “Just Say No” anti-drug ads. However, as BMSG’s Lori Dorfman notes in this BuzzFeed article, there is little evidence for the ads’ effectiveness. “We have found it more effective to foster a positive environment for kids, rather than wagging our fingers at them,” she said.
