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.”
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.
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.
by Dan Vergano | BuzzFeed
Monday, March 19, 2018
In a speech about ways to curb the country’s opioid epidemic, President Trump announced support for Reagan-era “Just Say No” anti-drug ads. However, as BMSG’s Lori Dorfman notes in this BuzzFeed article, there is little evidence for the ads’ effectiveness. “We have found it more effective to foster a positive environment for kids, rather than wagging our fingers at them,” she said.
by Aida Chávez | The Intercept
Friday, January 05, 2018
Coverage from The Intercept explores the role of human resources departments in preventing or perpetuating sexual harassment in the workplace. As BMSG’s Heather Gehlert, a former managing editor at AlterNet notes, “This is not just about any individual abuser. It’s about wider systems in our workplaces and broader cultural norms that allow this type of behavior to continue for years and, in some cases, decades.”
by Tara Murtha | Poynter
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
A new study published in the journal Contraception builds off of BMSG’s research and examines the challenges that reporters face when covering abortion. It addresses issues such as how the perceived need to write “balanced” pieces contributes to the propagation of false information, and the harassment journalists experience while investigating the topic.
by David Callahan, Alyssa Ochs | Inside Philanthropy
Monday, October 02, 2017
Eight funders are combining resources to achieve greater impact on preventing gun violence through a new anti-violence effort, the Hope and Heal Fund. BMSG is working with Hope and Heal to research the narrative on gun violence and reshape it to include other forms of violence beyond highly publicized mass shootings.
by Queenie Wong | SiliconBeat
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Berkeley Media Studies Group joined the Center for Digital Democracy and more than two dozen other nonprofits in asking the social media giant to publicly release the research it conducted on teens who feel "worthless" or "insecure." The groups expressed concern that marketers could use such data to exploit young people's vulnerabilities, with implications for their health.
by Lauren Himiak, Steph Herold | BUST
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
A new study from the Berkeley Media Studies Group and Sea Change Program shows how abortion stigma manifests in news coverage and outlines recommendations to help journalists and advocates change how this safe, common part of reproductive health care is portrayed.
by Alex Orlov | Mic
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Following widely criticized coverage from The New York Times on SNAP recipients' soda purchases, BMSG Senior Media Researcher Pamela Mejia points to a missing piece of the conversation: the food and beverage industry's aggressive marketing of sugary drinks and other unhealthy products to low-income communities.
