In the late 1990’s, children’s health began to receive more attention in the news media. But was the coverage meaningful? In this Issue, we find out by examining three months of coverage from newspapers and National Public Radio.
Knowing that the media can be very powerful in shaping how voters perceive social issues, BMSG analyzed news coverage of Houston’s Proposition A and other affirmative action issues during the fall of 1997.
In September 1993, a small but dedicated group of prevention advocates in Oakland, Calif., had the alcohol industry running scared. This Issue describes how the coalition used media advocacy successfully in its four-year struggle to rectify the over concentration of alcohol outlets in Oakland.
This study departs from the traditional perspective that televised violence directly affects viewers’ behavior and instead examines how news stories about violence influence public and policymaker opinion. The study employs the concept of framing, which posits that media tell people not only what issues to think about but also how to think about them.
This chapter shows how public health advocates can make better use of the mass media to address significant public health problems. It lays the foundation for such an approach, known as media advocacy, and it offers a 10-step guide to using media advocacy.
Californians made history in 1996. Across the state, 29 cities and counties voted to ban “junk guns” — the small, cheap handguns used disproportionately in crime. This Issue analyzes the arguments used during that debate in the 18 newspapers covering the regions where the bans were first enacted.
What is media advocacy? And how does it differ from the other ways groups use the mass media? Issue 1 shows how local groups use media advocacy to focus upstream on policy change and explains why that’s so important.
This handbook shows how journalists can adopt a public health approach to violence — one that views violence as preventable, not inevitable, and seeks to alter the basic conditions in our society that give rise to and sustain its unacceptably high levels. It also suggests different questions that reporters can ask to help illuminate the issue of violence prevention and give people better information to develop more effective policy and programs.
Affirmative action was a significant issue in the 1996 national and state elections. This framing memo, based on a news analysis of the issue, shows how affirmative action supporters and opponents framed their arguments and how supporters could have done a better job of making their case.
The purpose of media advocacy is to promote public health goals by using the media to strategically apply pressure for policy change. It emphasizes public policy rather than personal behavior. This article uses two case studies to illustrate key aspects of media advocacy. The first is a 5-year statewide violence prevention initiative for young people in California. The second focuses on the activities of a mothers’ group working to improve public housing.
