conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media.
Author: Kathryn Davis
Just as people glom onto miracle diets and miracle foods, they also look for the Darth Vader ingredients—those which use the force of taste to take over our bodies. HFCS was new, it was from corn, it was high in fructose. And it provided a simple solution to a hugely complex problem of why America was suddenly in the grip of obesity. But was this, “important potential hypothesis,” for the obesity epidemic (as the authors of the study wrote) true?
Media accounts contradicted the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ conclusion that HFCS and ordinary table sugar are equivalent in their composition and metabolism, according to a study released by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. According to CMPA President Dr. Robert Lichter, “The media still haven’t gotten the message from scientists that HFCS is essentially no different from any other nutritive sweetener.”
On the eve of Jay Leno’s retirement as host of “The Tonight Show,” a new study finds that Bill Clinton was Leno’s top political joke target over the past two decades, attracting one out of every ten jokes in his monologues, and O.J. Simpson was his top celebrity target. The study was released by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University (GMU). It covered 43,892 jokes about public figures and public affairs from 1992, when Jay Leno became host of the Tonight Show, through January 24, 2014.
In this study, which was supported by a grant from the Corn Refiners Association, we examine media coverage of the debate over the health effects of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other caloric sweeteners in the American diet. Beyond the basic pros and cons of the debate we also sought to understand the role science played in the debate over caloric sweeteners. We employed the social scientific research technique of content analysis, which is described in an appendix to this report.
FORBES- A survey of three professional societies, each focused on risk assessment, reveals that science is being pushed aside by politics and environmental advocacy when it comes to protecting the public from the risks of chemicals.
December 6, 2013- Event to release GMU Survey on Chemical Risk Assessment – A Survey by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) and Center for Health and Risk Communication (CHRC) at George Mason University.