One of the benefits of using social media is the opportunity to build relationships with individuals and organizations that are working on the same issues. In this study, we explore what hashtags advocates and others are using to discuss childhood trauma on Twitter and identify possible next steps for making the most of the conversation.
Strategic zoning and land-use policies can be used to help foster healthy food environments. But is the health argument enough when making the case for these policies? With our colleagues at Public Health Advocacy Institute and ChangeLab Solutions, BMSG analyzed legislative debates and news depictions of fast-food land-use ordinances to help researchers, policymakers and public health advocates better understand the effectiveness of various arguments for and against zoning.
Strategic zoning is a type of land-use planning that can be used to improve the environments that contribute to chronic health problems. But before advocates can implement zoning policy, they must first know how to make the case for it. This study analyzes news coverage and legal documentation of efforts to restrict fast-food restaurants to find out how such policies have are debated.
This study analyzes how the tobacco industry has used “freedom of choice” language and appeals to personal responsibility both in the media and in the courtroom to prevent litigation and blame consumers for the health consequences of using tobacco. Conducted with our colleagues at the Public Health Advocacy Institute, the study also looks at implications for other industries like soda and junk food, which have replicated and refined tobacco industry tactics.
In 2012 and 2013, Richmond and El Monte, CA, and Telluride, CO, became the first communities in the country to vote on citywide sugary drink taxes. In the face of massive spending from the soda industry, all three proposals failed, but the vigorous public debates they inspired provide valuable insights for future policy efforts. BMSG analyzed local and national news coverage of the three proposals to find out what arguments were being made for and against the taxes, whose voices dominated the coverage, and what this means for advocates.
BMSG Director Lori Dorfman shares research on soda industry marketing in this panel, as part of a speaker series leading up to the November 2014 election, which featured soda tax ballot measures in Berkeley and San Francisco. Dorfman discusses how the soda industry has become the number one educator influencing what kids drink and the tactics it uses to target children of color.
At an October 14, 2014, hearing of the California Assembly Select Committee on Domestic Violence, BMSG Senior Media Researcher Pamela Mejia speaks about the influence of news coverage on the public’s and policymakers’ understanding of domestic violence and how to address it.
In 2013, the small mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, proposed a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks. Like two similar soda tax measures that came before it in Richmond and El Monte, California, the proposal failed. In this report, we analyze what arguments were made for and against the tax in the news, whose voices dominated the conversation, and how coverage of Telluride compared with that of Richmond and El Monte.
What tactics are food and beverage companies using to target youth — especially youth of color — with marketing for unhealthy products? How do kids’ brains respond to seeing food ads and logos? Is industry self-regulation working? In this paper, BMSG’s Andrew Cheyne, Pamela Mejia, Laura Nixon and Lori Dorfman explore these questions and discuss implications for policy interventions.
Despite the efforts of nutrition advocates and health educators, food and beverage companies are a major source of children’s education about food, and most of the marketing messages they receive are for unhealthy products. In this entry for the Encyclopedia of Health Communication, we provide an overview of food marketing to kids, its link to health inequities in communities of color, and the policy landscape for intervening.
