by Kate Bernot | Sightlines
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Following allegations of sexual assault and gender-based harassment at a Kansas City brewing company, these issues are back in the news and social media. Coverage from Sightlines highlights research from BMSG that identifies shortcomings in news coverage of sexual violence, with implications for individual survivors and public policy.
by Gigi Kellett | Nation of Change
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Coverage from Nation of Change discusses how a tactic borrowed from the tobacco industry is allowing the food and beverage industry to block public health legislation by passing what are known as “preemption” laws. The article cites an analysis from Corporate Accountability, produced in partnership with BMSG, which exposes how the National Restaurant Association pushes Big Food’s agenda in Congress.
by Nicole Rasul | Civil Eats
Thursday, July 23, 2020
A new report from the Center for Digital Democracy shows how retail giants Walmart and Amazon are making it harder for low-income, online shoppers to avoid processed foods high in sugar and sodium. CDD, in partnership with Color of Change, UnidosUS, and the Berkeley Media Studies Group, has written a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to draw attention to manipulative marketing practices and has urged the USDA to strengthen digital safeguards for customers shopping online using benefits from the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP). Additional coverage of the report has appeared in The American Prospect, among other places.
by Wendy Davis | MediaPost
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Berkeley Media Studies Group joined the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Color of Change, and UnidosUS in urging the federal government to establish standards to protect the privacy of food stamp recipients who purchase groceries online. According to a new report released the same day by CDD, without proper digital safeguards, grocery and e-commerce companies harvest customer data, using it to target low-income buyers with ads for unhealthy products. The report and letter to the USDA also received news coverage from Progressive Grocer, Fern’s Ag Insider, and Ag Web.
by Carter Sherman | VICE News
Wednesday, July 08, 2020
In an interview with VICE News, BMSG Head of Research Pamela Mejia discusses how films like “365 Days” feed a culture that romanticizes abusive relationships. “When you see this kind of behavior and these kinds of [actions] normalized — not only normalized but held up as the romantic ideal,” she said, “that can be very, very harmful and potentially really affect what you then are willing to accept or able to see as normal or good or healthy or loving behavior.”
by Sandee LaMotte | CNN
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Black teens saw 2.3 times as many sugary drink ads as white teens in 2018, according to new research from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. “If the companies were serious about protecting Black lives — instead of profiting off of them — they could revamp their products and stop intensively marketing sugary drinks. It’s as simple as that,” BMSG Director Lori Dorfman told CNN.
Reuters
Thursday, May 14, 2020
BMSG is among a group of privacy and children’s advocacy organizations that filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that the popular app TikTok violated a consent decree and a law protecting children’s privacy online. The complaint alleges that TikTok failed to delete personal information about users age 12 and younger, as it had promised to do as part of the consent agreement. TikTok also failed to post on its home page an easy-to-find link to its privacy policy.
Common Dreams
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Berkeley Media Studies Group is among 33 consumer protection and advocacy organizations that have called on governments and the education sector to protect children from commercial exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
by Lori Dorfman and David Tuller | San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, April 07, 2020
BMSG Director Lori Dorfman and David Tuller, senior fellow in public health and journalism at U.C. Berkeley, use the opinion pages to argue that the COVID-19 pandemic requires politics to be set aside in the interest of the public’s health. When experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci correct medical misinformation but avoid commenting on the president’s political pronouncements, they lend implicit credibility to the Trump brand, Dorfman and Tuller explain. “Dedicated scientists should be able to perform their life-saving duties without having to navigate the political minefields of a presidential election campaign. The long-term consequences of placing public health officials in such an untenable position are likely to be devastating.”
by Amanda Terkel | HuffPost
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
In this piece for HuffPost, BMSG Director Lori Dorfman weighs in on what’s at stake for health when the president continually casts doubt on the credibility of the media: “It is horrifying now that we are facing a highly contagious disease that is frightening and confusing. To watch Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and Dr. Birx have to come to podium to correct — again and again — the misinformation from the mouth of a president is awful. It’s painful to watch because the consequences are huge.”
