Every week the latest study tells you about a new threat to your health and a new way to prevent it from killing you. It can be confusing when the studies switch back and forth. Once meat was bad, but now it's good; carbs were out, but now they're in. Can you really prevent diseases like cancer and diabetes through diet and exercise? To what degree do any diets—or stop-smoking programs—truly add years to your life? What about fast foods? Are they paving the way toward obesity and early onset of heart disease and diabetes for our kids? What's wrong with a little pleasure?
Hollywood, Health & Society Director Vicki Beck gave a talk on "TV as the Health Educator: What Patients Are Learning from Daytime and Prime Time Dramas" at the AAMC Spring Conference in Los Angeles. As the leading voice of the academic medical community, the AAMC represents the interests of the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals before Congress and federal agencies on a wide range of issues, including support for medical research, student loan programs, education funding and care for veterans. To find out more, visit the website for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The Norman Lear Center hosted a free screening of Scene Smoking: Cigarettes, Cinema and the Myth of Cool, an award-winning documentary in which Hollywood insiders and health professionals speak out about artists' rights, social responsibility and the First Amendment with regard to tobacco depiction. This 60-minute documentary includes interviews with Sean Penn, Ted Danson, Michael Crichton and Christy Turlington.
Hollywood, Health & Society hosted a panel on multicultural audiences and health messages in TV storylines at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, November 15-19, 2003. The theme of the 131st Annual Meeting was Behavior, Lifestyle, and Social Determinants of Health. Among the topics were an analysis of health content in popular TV shows and Spanish-language TV viewers and health information.
The Fourth Sentinel for Health Award went to The Young and the Restless (CBS) for the storyline, "Neil's Alcoholism," at the Writers Guild of America, West. The award was presented at a special ceremony held at the Writers Guild of America, West in Los Angeles.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's renowned medical and health experts are at the forefront of our country's most pressing public health threats. Their job is to protect the nation's health and safety. Hear from the experts who have investigated SARS, 9-11, anthrax, HIV/AIDS, cholera, lead poisoning, toxic shock syndrome and suicide. Learn about the CDC's elite training program—the Epidemic Intelligence Service. We will explore the present dangers our public health system faces with emerging diseases, antibiotic resistance and bioterrorism and the challenges of being on the front lines at the CDC and state and county health departments.
Rebellion and emotional turmoil come with the territory of being a teenager. But how do you tell when it is routine teen angst or something beyond that? Which behaviors are normal reactions to the troubled and violent times we live in and which are warning signs of serious mental problems?
On May 21-22 of 2003, a group of 26 social scientists from academic, advocacy, and public health organizations convened for a research conference in Santa Monica, California titled Developing a Research Agenda for Entertainment Education and Multicultural Audiences. The conference focused on the impact of health content in TV storylines on African American and Hispanic audiences in the United States. The objective of the conference was to gain a better understanding of the potential for TV shows to encourage positive health effects among African American and Hispanic audiences. This two-day conference included expert presentations, real-world examples by social marketing and entertainment industry experts and discussion groups organized to identify other examples, summarize lessons learned and develop next steps for entertainment-education research among multicultural audiences.Read the conference report Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S) program at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, this conference was designed to build on the foundation of a 2000 agenda-setting conference sponsored by CDC in Decatur, Georgia. The specific purpose of the 2003 conference was to focus on the effects of entertainment education (EE) on multicultural television audiences. The collective task of conference participants over the course of the two-day program was the following:• Assess the existing research and theory with respect to Entertainment Education outreach to multicultural audiences• Identify research gaps• Propose a meaningful and practical research agenda to better understand, anticipate and harness the effects of health-related television storylines on African American and Hispanic audiencesThe conference began with five research presentations and a review of the relevant literature, which provided an overview of current and past EE efforts focused on multicultural audiences. Presentations were followed by two media industry panels—the first focused on Spanish-language telenovelas with leaders from that industry, and the second focused on how the U.S. entertainment industry works, with a panel of entertainment and social marketing representatives. The third and final panel addressed funding-related issues with representatives from three different funding agencies—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, and The California Endowment.Each of these presentations and panel discussions informed the agenda-setting process that took place the second day of the conference. This process involved three distinct tasks:• to determine the specific criteria to be used for judging the merits of future EE research• to generate a list of potential research questions and ensure that key research questions are not overlooked• to prioritize the potential research questions in the order of perceived importanceBy the close of the conference, 11 criteria and 13 research questions were generated and ranked by the participants. These are summarized in the conference report, which is being shared broadly with partners in public health, academic, advocacy and entertainment organizations.Participants included:• Vicki Beck, MS, Hollywood, Health & Society• Michael Cody, PhD, Annenberg School for Communication• Geoffrey Cowan, Dean, USC Annenberg School for Communication• Vicki Freimuth, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention• Martin Kaplan, PhD, The Norman Lear Center | USC Annenberg School for Communication• May Kennedy, PhD, CDC Office of Communication• Katherine Lyon Daniel, PhD, National Center on Birth Defects & Developmental Disabilities• Max R. Lum, EdD, MPA, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health• Imani Ma'at, EdD, Morehouse School of Medicine• Sheila Murphy, PhD, USC Annenberg School of Communication• Clara Olaya, MA, Centers for Disease Control• Joseph Petraglia, PhD, CDC, Global AIDS Program• Marsha L. Vanderford, PhD, National Center for Environmental Health• Rina Alcalay, PhD, UC Davis Medical School• Vibert C. Cambridge, PhD, Ohio University• Ralph DiClemente, PhD, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University• Deborah Glik, ScD, UCLA School of Public Health• Sonya Grier, PhD, Stanford University• Yolanda Partida, MSW, DPA, “Hablamos Juntos” National Program Office• Michael Reisch, PhD, Children Now• Carolina Reyes, MD , The California Endowment• Miguel Sabido, Writer / Producer / Professor• Charles Salmon, PhD, Michigan State University• K. Vish Viswanath, PhD, National Cancer Institute• L. Monique Ward, PhD, University of Michigan
Experts discussed the more than 41 million Americans with no health insurance, and real people shared their experiences of trying to find healthcare. Leading medical experts agree that going without health insurance frequently leads to emergency hospitalizations, critical illness, and sometimes, premature death.
The Third Sentinel for Health Award was given to The Bold and The Beautiful (CBS) for the storyline, "Tony's HIV," for its portrayal of a young man learning to live with HIV. The award was presented at the Soap Summit conference sponsored by Population Communications International. The first-ever Pioneer for Health Award was given to Agnes Nixon for "Bert's Pap Smear," a storyline that aired in 1961-1962 on Guiding Light (CBS). Nixon's groundbreaking storyline is considered to be the first health storyline in daytime drama. The storyline "Ashley's Breast Cancer" from The Young and The Restless (CBS) was recognized as a finalist.
