posted on Monday, June 18, 2012
Nestle claims it doesn’t market candy to children, but health advocates say a new line of Girl Scout-themed Crunch candy bars violates the company’s pledge. The limited-edition candy bars bear the familiar Girl Scouts logo and evoke three popular Girl Scout Cookie flavors. A key difference between the candy bars and cookies is that the new candy bars have more calories, more saturated fat, and more sugars, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI’s Margo Wootan and BMSG’s Lori Dorfman have urged the company to stop marketing unhealthy foods featuring the Girl Scout’s name and logo and refrain from similar marketing approaches in the future.
posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
New research has found that the U.S. government and schools have made mixed progress to address food and beverage marketing practices that put young people’s health at risk. A comprehensive review published in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that public sector stakeholders have failed to fully implement recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to support a healthful diet to children and adolescents. In a commentary accompanying the article, BMSG’s Lori Dorfman notes that the food and beverage industry spends more than $5 million every day marketing foods high in fat, sugar and salt to youth.
posted on Monday, January 09, 2012
A new report today praised early media coverage of the Penn State University child sexual abuse crisis for its broader perspective and precise language but criticized its failure to address solutions for prevention. The report, released by the Ms. Foundation for Women and the Berkeley Media Studies Group, recognized the media for its ability to tell an institutional story about university officials’ failure to report and end abuse after they learned of it. However, the coverage fell short in examining what preliminary measures should have been taken to prevent the abuse from occurring and what steps are being taken now to prevent future abuse.
posted on Monday, June 13, 2011
Tens of thousands of children are sexually abused each year in the United States, yet news coverage of the subject is out of sync with both the magnitude of the issue and the context in which it occurs. This finding comes from a study released this month from Berkeley Media Studies Group. The report, Case by case: News coverage of child sexual abuse, examined national news stories on child sexual abuse published between 2007 and 2009, and found several troubling patterns emerge in the coverage.
