Our COMM team had the opportunity to collaborate with the Berkeley Media Studies Group on an analysis of print and TV broadcast news stories about hunger and food assistance aired in 2021. This blog post was originally published on the BMSG website and offers reflections about the implications of the findings for advocates at the end of the COVID...
Racial Equity Messaging Must be More Inclusive
By Tom Fleischman, Cornell Chronicle
In a review of more than three decades’ worth of studies that examine support for, or opposition to, policies with racial equity implications, a Cornell-led research group found that more research on messaging that includes the voices of historically marginalized people is necessary in the push toward equ...
2022 Campaign Advertising Highlights: What Was and Wasn’t Featured in Issue Discussion on Television
And its implications for policy to promote population health
Campaign advertising – on television, online, through social media platforms, and even at the gas pump – remains a centrally important method through which candidates for office (and the groups that support them) convey to voters their policy accomplishments and priorities and those...
2022 Campaign Advertising Highlights: Understanding Themes in Limited Messaging on Climate Change and Critical Race Theory
By Steven Moore
Democrats and Republicans do not agree on much when it comes to politics. However, there does seem to be agreement from members of both parties that the country is on the wrong track, with a slim and broad majority of Democrats and Republicans, respectively, endorsing this idea.
2022 Campaign Advertising Highlights: Child Tax Credit References Largely Absent in Ads
By Erika Franklin Fowler, Natália de Paula Moreira, and Jielu Yao
As the 2022 midterm elections race to their conclusion on Tuesday, there has been a lot of discussion about the content and issue focus of the ads flooding the airwaves, with abortion topping the list for Democrats while Republican messaging has closed with an emphasis on government...
COVID-19 PSAs on TV in 2020 were Associated with the Political Orientation of Communities in which they Aired
Since early in the pandemic, Republicans and Democrats have exhibited different attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward the COVID-19 pandemic. These beliefs have even translated into divergent mortality, with a study released last week showing that after vaccinations became widely available, Republicans had higher death rates than Democrats.
2022 Campaign Advertising Highlights: References to Abortion in Ads Reveals Anti-Government Messaging on Both Sides
Such a strategy has broader implications for public health
In the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade abortion rights, messaging in political campaign ads for the 2022 midterm elections has featured abortion prominently, especially in pro-Democratic messaging.
Federally-affiliated Public Service Announcements (PSAs) During the Early Period of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Our team, led by Margaret Tait, recently published the results of a study exploring public service announcements (PSAs) sponsored by the federal government and airing on TV during the early months of the pandemic, from March through December of 2020. The study is available open access in Preventive Medicine Reports.
Rapid Response Media Research will Promote Equity
By Jim Hanchett, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Citing the urgent need for more effective and equitable health communication, three universities are collaborating on a unique research endeavor that will quickly identify developing public health issues, address conflicting messages and counter misinformation, funded with a...
Local TV News Coverage of Racial Disparities in COVID-19 During the First Wave of the Pandemic
Our team recently published the results of a study exploring local TV news coverage of racial disparities in COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in Race and Social Problems (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-022-09372-5). This study examined how local TV news stories attributed causes and solutions for COVID-19-related racial health and...