BMSG in the news

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When news undermines the public’s health

by Jake Goldstein-Street | The Daily
Thursday, November 01, 2018

In a presentation to students at the University of Washington, BMSG Director Lori Dorfman introduced students to the ways in which news coverage can highlight or obscure the role of our environment — and government — in influencing health.

Researchers find no progress in media representation of nurses over last 20 years

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.

Sacramento is making urban agriculture a way of life

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.

California lawmakers urged to reject attempts to weaken privacy law

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.

To understand Philly’s gun violence crisis, in-depth reporting is needed

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.”

Woodhull study finds nurses still missing from media health care coverage

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.

Letter, re: How does Sacramento get to economic justice after Stephon Clark? Activism, a smart plan and lots of money

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.”

Consumer groups file FTC complaint against YouTube for collecting kids’ personal data without parental consent

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.

The push to get sports leagues to cut out junk food sponsors

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.

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