In this two-phase project, we aimed to understand how news media narratives surrounding mental health shape Black youth’s perceptions of mental health needs in Minneapolis. A media scan of local television news paired with focus groups with Black youth (13-19 years old) living in the Minneapolis area highlighted the intersectional impact of...

In fall 2022, Center for Health Progress (CHP) and the Collaborative on Media and Messaging (COMM HSP) jointly launched a community-based participatory research project to explore how grassroots narrative power can disrupt deeply entrenched myths about the U.S. healthcare system and motivate collective action toward transformation. Below, we...

Over the past three years, the University of Minnesota COMM HSP team has engaged many early career researchers, including masters students, doctoral students, masters-level research coordinators, and a postdoctoral fellow.

By Quin Mudry-Nelson When over 5,500 non-Native survey respondents were asked to recall depictions of Native Americans they had seen or heard about in film and television, they had little to say. In other words, researchers found that both well-known living and deceased Native American people escape the general public’s memory.

By Margaret Tait

This blog post was originally published on the BMSG website.

By Natália de Paula Moreira, Muna Hassan, Yujin Kim, Meiqing Zhang, Breeze Floyd, Erika Franklin Fowler

The Collaborative on Media and Messaging (COMM) for Health and Social Policy has previously identified evidence for robust and growing counter-messaging and news attention to policies and initiatives designed to combat structural racism and health equity.

By Tom Fleischman, Cornell Chronicle During the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that people from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups were more likely than non-Hispanic white people to be infected, be hospitalized and die from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

On a cold, snowy evening in Minneapolis, a dedicated crowd gathered at The Market at Malcolm Yards for a vital conversation: How can local journalism better serve public health? Despite the winter weather, the warmth of engaged discussion filled the room as journalists, public health professionals, and community members came together to explore...