ROLES OF THE NEWS MEDIA IN KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION AROUND NUTRITIOUS DIET

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Two-thirds of all deaths in the U.S. can be attributed to cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Establishing and maintaining nutritious diet is an important factor in reducing disease burden. To this end, Healthy people 2010 lists obesity and overweight as leading health indicators (LHI), and identifies promoting health and reducing chronic disease associated with diet and weight as a key objective. Studies to understand the pathways between diet and health outcomes are now a national research priority. This prioritization is accompanied by an increasing expectation that researchers will work with the media to synthesize and disseminate nutrition-related findings, even when such findings may be preliminary. Knowledge dissemination is seen as important for informing effective health policy, empowering the public, and ultimately reducing health disparities resulting from poor diet. The news media is a primary mechanism for such dissemination, but it is a commonly held belief that media messages around nutritious diet are not clear, but are rather often confusing and contradictory. A systematic examination of the nature of news coverage is important for effective utilization of the news media for both policy advocacy and public education. I propose a three-stage research project, beginning with in-depth interviews with stakeholders in nutrition policy and members of targeted populations for dietary information. These interviews will form the basis for developing a framework for collecting, coding and analyzing print, TV and internet news media coverage of nutritious diet. Finally, I will use news stories collected as stimulus materials in a series of aboratory experimentsto examine how different audiences process an array of dietary messages presented n various news media. Ultimately, my goal is to utilize audience assessments, in conjunction with the descriptive coding of news media content, to formulate recommendations for dissemination of knowledge pertaining to nutritious diet. The proposed research and training plan allow me to develop new substantive and methodological skills and expertise. The proposal includes training in nutrition and experimental design around information processing. At the end of this project, I will have substantive expertise in two major modifiable risk factors: tobacco and diet. Moreover, I will be fully equipped to conduct holistic studies of the news media as a key tool for chronic disease prevention - from news production to audience processing.