Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated public relations or marketing campaign under the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public. The term originated from the artificial grass astroturf applied to an artificial grass-roots campaign.
Astroturfing is rampant across industries that are inextricably connected to health: Food, beverages, climate, and safety, just to name a few. Oliver humorously calls out [click title to read more]
Food media literacy is essential to health. Achieving both requires not just unpacking the ingredients of foods but also decoding how the messages about them are packaged and delivered for ideological consumption. McDonald’s is masterful at (among other things) feeding public demand for “behind the scenes” information to dispel rumors about their food products while at the same time downplaying their potential hazards [click title to read more]
This is a guest post by Hope Green. She is 9-years-old and in 4th grade. Her hobbies are DIY/crafting, Suzuki piano, song-writing, and writing fiction. The UNICEF Kid Power Band is technically a “fit bit” for kids. It’s a pedometer that tracks your steps, tells the time, and turns exercise into “lifesaving nutrition that UNICEF delivers to severely malnourished children around the world.” [click title to read more]
New course elective offered Fall 2017 semester in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Description: Food literacy requires much more than accruing facts or deciphering nutrition labels. Humans must actively engage across a wide variety of communication contexts and media platforms. Students in this course will develop and apply food media literacy skills to analyze, evaluate, create, and circulate knowledge about the histories, cultures, economies, and politics of food in the United States. Students will demonstrate their understanding of media languages, messages, audiences, and ownership through individualized and cross-platform media productions.
This 3-minute video is an interesting conversation-starter about causes of death, by country. Not only does it call attention to the diverse cultural values and threats, but it also scientifically and mathematically suggests that where you are born on the planet is truly a life and death matter. It also sparks discussion about global health and social justice.
This is a presentation given by Vanessa Domine (now Greenwood) at the 2016 Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) Conference on April 1st. The title is, “A Whole Curriculum Development Model for Critical Media Health Literacy Among Adolescents” as part of the Session “Health Literacy: Communicating and Collaborating for Better Understanding.” Audio stream and supporting documents are located below the presentation.
The “Read & Ride” program in Ward Elementary School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is so simple, it is simply brilliant. This NBC Today Show segment (no longer available) frames it as a way for educators to solve the (classroom management) problem of “fidgety kids.” However, the power of reading while riding (on donated stationary bikes) goes well beyond addressing classroom management issues. It promotes “action-based learning” which feeds the body and the mind. No bikes? No problem. Schools around the country are using bouncy balls, standing desks, bungee cords—anything to provide a vehicle through which students can “expel energy.”
The Story of Stuff project team is known for their creativity and critical consumer and environmental activism in partnership with empowered marketer Free Range Studios….
Media literacy is key to health literacy. But what does media literacy look like in everyday life? Here is one simple yet elegant example of…
This week the U.S. celebrates it’s first National Media Literacy Week (thanks to the huge efforts of Michelle Lipkin, the Executive Director of the National Association…
