by NAAFA | Digital Journal
Thursday, January 12, 2023
New research from the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance supported by BMSG’s Head of Research Pamela Mejia shows how anti-fat attitudes are dominating media coverage. Of the articles evaluated for research, the majority focused on weight loss, with very few acknowledging weight stigma or fat justice. Media coverage has the power to influence policy, which is crucial for fat rights as 48 states have no protections against size-based discrimination. This research has also appeared on the Dove website alongside a petition to end body-size discrimination.
by Heather Gehlert | Columbia Missourian
Friday, September 16, 2022
BMSG’s Heather Gehlert uses a new survey from the nonprofit Trusted Future to create news about how today’s digital ecosystem is harmful to children’s physical and mental health. She weaves in personal storytelling, appeals to values like safety and equity, and urges her elected officials to take action by supporting legislation that would update digital protections for today’s always-online era. As new legislation known as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is making its way through Congress, BMSG’s allies at Fairplay are creating media advocacy and letter-writing opportunities for advocates. If you are interested in participating, visit https://fairplayforkids.org/.
by Vincent Schiraldi | The Crime Report
Friday, August 26, 2022
“In 2001, Lori Dorfman of the Berkeley Media Studies Group and I [Vincent Schiraldi] conducted a meta-analysis—a study of studies—of 77 high quality research papers on media coverage of crime, race, and youth entitled Off Balance. We found that, despite the decline in youth crime, policies and public opinion were driven by exaggerated media coverage, often prompted by either high profile, idiosyncratic crimes, political posturing, or both.
For example, between 1993 and 1999, homicides by youth declined by 68% and were at their lowest rate since 1966. Yet 62 percent of the public believed that youth crime was on the rise.”
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.
