Hollywood & Health: Health Content in Popular Television

Hollywood & Health: Health Content in Popular Television

Innovative Survey Conducted with Grey's Anatomy Television Show to Be Released

On Tuesday, September 16, the Kaiser Family Foundation is sponsoring the briefing, "Hollywood & Health: Health Content in Popular Television." At the event two new studies will be released: an innovative experiment with Grey's Anatomy, one of television's most watched shows, to measure the reach and effectiveness of an embedded health message in a specific episode of the show from the last television season and a survey examining the prevalence and quality of health content in popular, scripted prime-time television.

While the American public obtains content in a multimedia environment ranging from so called old media like newspapers to new media like blogs and online social networks, television maintains the ability to reach millions of people with relative ease. Popular primetime television's primary purpose is to entertain the audience, but it also has the ability to convey messages about serious issues. Some key questions that will be examined at the briefing include: How much health content is there in primetime television? What is the depth of the health content on television? Does the public retain the messages they see on television shows? Do they take any action after absorbing these messages? Are show writers and researchers careful to be accurate about the health messages delivered on their shows?

Welcome and Opening Remarks
Vicky Rideout, M.A.,

Vice President, and Director, Program for the Study of Media and Health, Kaiser Family Foundation

Presentation of Research Findings

How Healthy Is Prime Time?: An Analysis of Health Content in Popular Prime Time Television Programs

Sheila Murphy, Ph.D.,

Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Television as a Health Educator: A Case Study of Grey's Anatomy
Vicky Rideout, M.A., Kaiser Family Foundation

Panel Discussion
Jackie Judd (moderator)

Vice President and Senior Advisor for Communications, Kaiser Family Foundation

Neal Baer, M.D., Executive Producer and Writer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Jay M. Bernhardt, Ph.D., M.P.H., Director, National Center for Health Marketing, CDC

Sandra de Castro Buffington, Director, Hollywood, Health & Society, USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center

Elizabeth Klaviter, M.F.A., Director of Medical Research, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice

WHEN: Tuesday, September 16, breakfast and registration at 9:00 a.m. and program begins at 9:30 a.m.

WHERE: Barbara Jordan Conference Center, 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC.

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- Sept. 12/

CONTACT: Rakesh Singh of the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, +1-650-234-9232, +1-202-487-6227

Source: Henry J. Kaiser Foundation

Web Site: http://www.kff.org/

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