Caregiving — both paid and unpaid — is critical to the function of our society. But how does the public perceive this vital act? Berkeley Media Studies Group investigated narratives surrounding caregiving in collaboration with the California Work & Family Coalition, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
To learn how four successful California campaigns appeared in the news, and to identify overarching patterns across multiple campaigns, BMSG and partners evaluated news coverage to compare how both supportive and oppositional messages characterized SSB taxes while communities were proposing, passing, and implementing their groundbreaking policies. Our results can inform advocates and community members as they make the case for taxes on sugary drinks.
What role did community base-building organizations (CBOs) play in advancing declarations of racism as a public health crisis? And how were those declarations were covered in the media? In this brief, we answer those questions and present additional findings from a series of surveys, Learning Circles, and media analyses designed by The Praxis Project and Berkeley Media Studies Group.
Food assistance has been part of the U.S. social safety net for decades, although not without controversy over who should receive benefits and in what form. These issues became even more significant with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Americans relied on food assistance. In this analysis BMSG researchers and partners examined how, if at all, news coverage of food assistance during the second year of the pandemic framed racial and health equity, and the possible implications of this framing for narrative change going forward.
The following resource is intended to support advocates in developing local campaigns and communication strategies to: share information about different options available to reduce harm from guns; inspire needed community conversations; and empower survivors.
Rollover protective structures (ROPS) can prevent fatal tractor overturns, a leading cause of death among farmers. Despite proven success, ROPS — and programs to make them more widely available to farmers — are all but absent from news coverage in key agricultural states, a news analysis, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, found.
Today’s housing climate is the result of centuries of history, policies, and practices. To move forward, we must acknowledge the past and how it shapes our lives today. Read more on how journalists can uncover the roots of housing and health inequities and elevate solutions for social justice, in this new guide from the Council of Community Housing Organizations, the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, and BMSG.
Tractor overturns are the most prominent contributing factor to death on U.S. farms and have been for decades. Yet a highly effective solution — installing rollover protective structures — remains underused, partly because of a lack of public investment. In this commentary, we highlight the science behind this proven solution to tractor overturns and the essential role that the media and implementation science can play in encouraging policy-makers to save lives.
Racial inequities frequently make headlines, but a new study from BMSG, conducted in collaboration with our partners at UnidosUS, has found that the voices and experiences of Latinos — the country’s largest ethnic minority — are rarely included. Our latest report discusses disparities in coverage and outlines steps that journalists, publishers, philanthropists, and advocates can take to help ensure more inclusive, complete coverage.
As some politicians and their political allies try to shrink the authority of public health officials and agencies, it is critical that practitioners and advocates are equipped to speak about why we need public health to keep our communities safe and healthy. To help the field make an effective case for public health, BMSG and Real Language, with support from ChangeLab Solutions and the Act for Public Health group, assessed narratives around the current attacks on public health’s authority to identify problematic language and opportunities for improvement. In this report, we offer 5 key recommendations for change.
