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...

By Laura Reiley, Cornell Chronicle In our politically charged climate, advocates have often raised concerns that messages describing racial disparities in social outcomes can reduce or polarize support for public policies to address inequality. 

And its implications for future policy to promote population health 2024 was another record-breaking year of campaign spending, with campaigns reaching citizens through their television screens, mobile devices, online, in their mailboxes and via social media platforms in an effort to convey their policy achievements and future priorities and...

What a fantastic time we had at the APHA Conference in Minneapolis! Our week was filled with opportunities to connect, collaborate, and learn as we joined public health professionals from across the nation to explore pressing public health topics. Our team was excited to bring insights from our latest research, and it was even more inspiring to...

Since 2022, the COMM HSP team based at the University of Minnesota has been collaborating with Center for Health Progress (CHP) on an innovative community-based research partnership.

In mid-August, the Collaborative on Media & Messaging for Health and Social Policy team gathered for a full team meeting, hosted at Wesleyan University. This gathering provided a valuable opportunity to connect in person, brainstorm ideas, and set the stage for the work we’ll be undertaking this year.

One of the key principles of community-engaged research is to involve communities in the process of asking research questions. Doing so enables the research to be more useful and practical in the real world, and also advances equity principles in the conduct of research by putting the affected communities closer to the center of the research...

In a recent study published in Social Science & Medicine, Jiawei Liu and Jeff Niederdeppe examined studies about social comparison framing of health disparities.