MMC 6402: Seminar in Mass Communication Theory



JOU 4930

Mass Media and Health

Summer 2019

Kim Walsh-Childers

3044 Weimer Hall Class meetings: TBA

kwchilders@jou.ufl.edu

Phone: (0) 392-3924, (Cell) 352-665-1398

Twitter: @WalshChilders

Course Objectives

Mass media – it’s all just entertainment, right? The purpose of this course is to introduce you to how researchers have answered that question in regard to the impact of media on individual health behavior and on overall public health. After completing the course, you should have a better understanding of what the media, including news outlets, entertainment programming, advertising and social media, communicate to us about a variety of key health issues and how those messages influence our own health knowledge, beliefs and behaviors. In addition, you’ll have a better understanding of the ways in which media messages can help to create and/or undermine a healthy social environment.

Texts

There is no required text for the course, but there are required readings. I’ve tried to keep them short, when I can, but you really can’t understand what we know about these topics, in some cases, without reading some “scholarly” reports.

The vast majority of reading material for the class is available online. Given that Internet access could be sketchy in Australia, I would recommend that you download all the readings to your laptop before we leave the United States. This will be a highly interactive class, based on cooperative learning. Thus, it’s crucial that you complete all assigned readings before the class during which they will be discussed. For each class, please identify at least two important, thoughtful questions or discussion points you want the class to discuss during that day’s session. Bring these questions to class, ready to turn in. Make sure they’re neatly handwritten (unless you print them before we leave), with your name included!

Grading

Class participation: 20%

Come to class each day ready to be a full participant in the discussion of the week's readings. Read the articles carefully and try to integrate what you learn both within topics and across topics. Ask intelligent and thoughtful questions and attempt to provide equally intelligent and thoughtful answers to the questions raised by your colleagues. Don’t “hog” the discussion, but do participate.

Discussion questions: 15%

Your grade on the discussion questions you submit for each class will depend on a number of factors, including the extent to which the questions demonstrate that you have done the assigned reading and the clarity and quality of the writing (Does your question or comment make sense? Are you using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation?). Whether your submission includes comments or questions, any statements of opinion should be evidence-based. In other words, if you’re going to argue that advertising has no effect on alcohol consumption, be prepared to offer evidence – not just anecdotes – backing up that claim.

News analysis paper: 15%

For this assignment, I’ll make available to you a selection of mainstream news articles describing some type of medical research. I’ll also give you (in electronic form) the original research article on which the news article was based. You will choose one or two news articles on the same research study and evaluate the articles, using a set of criteria I’ll provide. The point here is to understand what types of important information journalists often leave out when they’re reporting on health research. (This exercise should help make you a savvier consumer of health information!)

Australian media/health environment observation paper: 20%

In this paper, I want you to answer one major question: How does the media/health environment in Australia differ from that in the United States? How can you answer this question? Well, first, read Australian newspapers and magazines; watch Australian TV; listen to Australian radio. But in addition (and this is required), ask Australians! I’ll give you a list of starter questions, but feel free to go beyond these when speaking with the Australians you meet. Because Australians speak English, there’s no reason why you can’t interview at least two or three people for this paper. Make your own observations, but then check out your impressions with Australians. (Hint: This is a great excuse to interact with regular Australians, including that cute bloke or sheila waiting in the coffee line in front of you!) This paper is due the last class day before we leave Australia. (Guess what I’ll be reading on the flight home?)

Final paper: 30%

Your final paper will be a 10-page paper discussing the research on a media/health issue of interest to you. The focus here is to answer a question such as this: “Based on the research to date, what do we know about how media (advertising, television programming, online health information, social media, news coverage, etc.) affect people’s attitudes and behaviors related to (your chosen health issue)?” So, for instance, your paper might address question such as:

• How does alcohol advertising influence college students’ binge-drinking behavior?

• Does social media use contribute to depression?

• How does use of Instagram or YouTube affect young women’s body image concerns

• How does use of pornography affect individuals’ ability to engage in healthy sexual relationships?

• How does news coverage influence our beliefs about mental illness?

• Or any other media/health topic, so long as the topic is approved in advance.

You will be required to submit a proposal for your topic before we leave for Australia so that you can begin collecting articles on the topic to bring with you. You also will be required to report on your progress on the paper during the trip. Note: The 10-page minimum does not include references, and the paper will need to include a reference list with complete citations for every source you reference in the paper. This paper will be due June XX – after we return from Australia – but don’t wait ‘til we get back to start working on it! You will be required to submit this paper electronically through Canvas, and it will be run through Turnitin to check for plagiarism.

Plagiarism Zero Tolerance Policy

If you include improperly credited material in any of your work, you will fail the class. Not just the assignment – the whole class. If I find you have plagiarized, I will submit an academic dishonesty report to the UF Dean of Students Office. See below for further information.

I assign minus grades so that students whose work is superior are recognized for their higher performance.

Final grades will be based on these standard break-points:

A- = 90-93.5% A= 93.6%+

B- = 80-83.5% B=83.6-87% B+=87.1%-89.9%

C-= 70-73.5% C=73.6-77% C+=77.1%-79.9%

D-= 60-63.5% D=63.6-67% D+=67.1%-69.9%

E = 59.9% or lower.

It is unlikely that the grades will be curved.

The following website provides a chart showing UF’s policy regarding the grade points earned for each letter grade designation:

Academic Honesty

In accordance with UF policy, I’m including in this syllabus the definitions of the types of academic dishonesty that seem most likely to be potential problems for students in this class. If a situation ever arises in which you think something you’re contemplating might constitute one of these types of academic dishonesty, ask before you do it. Apologies after the fact will not resolve the problem for anyone.

Definitions

Misrepresentation: This means any act that is intended to deceive a teacher for academic advantage, including lying about the circumstances under which you collected data, turning in a paper you’ve previously submitted for another class, and failing to provide honest information when confronted with an allegation of academic dishonesty.

Fabrication: For this class, the primary concern would be making up interviews you did not actually conduct or including details in a story that you did not actually observe or obtain from sources.

Plagiarism: Any use of someone else’s ideas or words in a way that presents those ideas or words as your own constitutes plagiarism, even if the ideas or words have not been published. This includes using word-for-word or only slightly altered segments of wording from someone else, regardless of who that individual is, without providing a citation that gives the original author credit. Obviously, submitting anyone else’s work as your own constitutes plagiarism, but I also encourage you to look at the plagiarism guide provided by UF’s Marston Science Library:

Plagiarism is one of the most serious crimes in academia and in communication. It is your responsibility to make certain you correctly cite or attribute other people’s research and writing in your papers. Be especially careful about keeping track of the source of information you glean from Internet-based materials. It is all too easy to copy and paste sections of material from a website, and later you may not remember exactly which information represents your notes or paraphrases of what you read and what is a verbatim copy. Unintended plagiarism is still plagiarism, and all plagiarism will be treated as intentional because I cannot know what you meant to do. It is acceptable, of course, to include verbatim materials from other people’s works, but when you do, you must either include such material in quotation marks or set it off from the rest of the paper by indenting and single spacing. Note: Copying a sentence or a significant part of a sentence and replacing a few words in it with synonyms is still plagiarism.

You are free at any point to ask me for guidance about how to credit others’ work properly – even if you need to ask about something as you’re handing the paper to me. Submitting your papers through the Canvas site also will allow you to check the papers through . Do not trust any other student or professor to tell you what is or isn’t regarded as plagiarism in my class – ask me.

Another no-no is recycling your own work for this class. Let's make the policy clear and simple: You will not turn in for this class any work you previously have submitted to another instructor or that you plan to submit for any other class at UF or any other institution. Writing a paper or producing a story for this class on a topic you've worked on before may be acceptable, but discuss it with me in advance. It’s perfectly reasonable for you to draw on work you’ve already done for other classes. It’s not reasonable for you to turn in the same paper or one that is substantially the same as work you’ve already used. If you’re currently taking another course for which you must complete similar kinds of assignments, and you want to use the same general topic for both classes, we’ll need to work out an agreement acceptable to me and the other instructor before you proceed.

Topic, Reading and Assignment Schedule

IMPORTANT note about the readings: If I’ve included a scientific journal article, it’s not necessary that you read every word. If the article is a review, read to make sure you understand what the majority of the research has shown, rather than to learn the details of any particular study. If the article is about a single study, focus your attention on understanding the key findings. Note that many of these readings are quite short – two pages or less – especially if there are multiple readings for a given week. All readings will be available to download before we leave for Australia.

|Class/Date |Topic(s) |Required readings/assignments |

|1/May 10 |Introductions, discuss syllabus & assignments. Discuss |Please watch this TED-X talk before you leave the United |

| |what it means to be healthy, causes of poor health; |States. |

| | | |

|2/May 14 |The media/health matrix |Walsh-Childers, Chapter 1: The media environment, U.S. health |

| | |and the media-health effects matrix |

|3/May 16 |Media & violence |American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement – Media |

| | |Violence |

|4/May 17 |Media & drugs: Advertising and other mixed messages |American Academy of Pediatrics (2010). Policy |

| | |statement--children, adolescents, substance abuse, and the |

| | |media; |

| | |Winpenny et al – Exposure of children and adolescents to |

| | |alcohol marketing on social media; |

| | |Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids – Electronic cigarettes and |

| | |youth |

|5/May 18 |Media & sex – All glamour, no consequences (except in real|Ross – Overexposed and under-prepared: The effects of early |

| |life) |exposure to sexual content; |

| | |Weiss – Is male porn use ruining sex?; |

| | |Kreston – Call me maybe: Social media & the spread of STDs |

| | |DUE: Progress report on final paper – Hard copy or electronic |

|6/May 23 |Media & body image – Do the media make us fat – or |Watch: Jean Kilbourne - Ted-X talk – The dangerous ways ads |

| |anorexic? |see women; |

| | |Barclay – Do photos of thin models really cause eating |

| | |disorders? |

| | |Moroz (2012). Is Facebook making you fat? |

|7/May 24 |News coverage of health: Everything causes/prevents cancer|Furlan (2017). Reporting medical news is too important to mess |

| | |up |

| | |Lieberman (2017). The Obamacare emergency: Can health care |

| | |reporters rise to the challenge? |

| | |DUE: Health news analysis report - electronic |

|8/May 25 |News & public policy effects |Gollust – Local TV news coverage of the ACA: Short on |

| | |substance, long on politics |

|9/May 30 |“Facebook Depression” and other social media issues |Hamblin (2015). The psychology of healthy Facebook use: No |

| | |comparing to other lives; |

| | |Nixon (2014). Current perspectives: the impact of cyberbullying|

| | |on adolescent health |

| | |McNamee (2014). Happiness is viral, thanks to social media |

| | |DUE: Australian media/health environment observation paper |

|June 15 |Please remember to submit your paper to the “draft” paper |Final paper due – no late papers accepted! Electronic |

| |assignment in Canvas so that you can check for plagiarism |submission through Canvas is required. |

| |issues BEFORE you submit the final version of the paper. | |

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