Berkeley Media Studies Group

"The general public has a more intense desire to understand [election results] at a nitty-gritty level," said Sally Buzbee, senior vice president and executive editor. "We don’t want to be a dark, mysterious black box ... I don't think that benefits us, and I don’t think it benefits democracy." https://apnews.com//election-2020-donald-trump-television- Many TV executives are making similar promises of transparency, and The New York Times has put together a guide showing soc...ial platforms' plans for fighting misinformation surrounding the election. https://www.nytimes.com//facebook-twitter-youtube-election What are your go-to sources on Election Day?

"Homicides in predominantly Black neighborhoods received less coverage than those in predominantly White neighborhoods, and the coverage of murders in Black areas was less likely to portray victims as complex human beings." https://www.themarshallproject.org//when-does-murder-make-

"I am stunned," former Voice of America director Amanda Bennett told NPR early Tuesday morning. "It removes the one thing that makes Voice of America distinct from broadcasters of repressive regimes." https://www.npr.org//u-s-agency-targets-its-own-journalist

The years of organizing that build the foundation for visible moments of social change are often hidden from view. In our latest blog, we go behind the scenes to learn how Bay Area organizers have used the tools of media advocacy to further efforts to prevent police violence and invest in community health. https://bit.ly/35yQUSE #APHA2020

Want to help shape the narrative on violence? Join us next week at #APHA2020 to learn more about language and framing to increase accuracy and highlight the need for prevention. For session times and details, see http://www.bmsg.org/blog/join-bmsg-at-apha-2020/

Reporting on police violence and racial injustice has become common, but it's rare to hear about the behind-the-scenes organizing responsible for elevating an issue. This piece from the LA Times does just that by exploring the story of "what it took to get the 25,000-member American Public Health Assn. to explicitly state that systemic racism contributes to bad policing." https://www.latimes.com//how-police-violence-became-a-publ

In this 13-part interactive series, the editorial board of The New York Times uses the full force of its collective journalism expertise to lay bare the extensive damage President Trump has created and how a second term poses the "greatest threat to American democracy since World War II." "The editorial board does not lightly indict a duly elected president" they write. "... Yet when the Senate refused to convict the president for obvious abuses of power and obstruction, we c...ounseled his political opponents to focus their outrage on defeating him at the ballot box." The series, then, serves as a type of voter guide, examining many issues, such as how Trump has undermined science, attacked women's rights, endangered Black lives, harmed immigrant families, and put our planet in deep peril. https://www.nytimes.com//opinion/donald-trump-worst-presid

This is a step in the right direction, but it is hardly a panacea. Even journalists aiming to correct misinformation and disinformation must be cautious to avoid inadvertently amplifying it. Still, it is good to see the Times explicitly discuss the link between our online and offline worlds: "This [conspiracy-driven] online content can result in real-world violence, and fosters hate that harms entire communities," said Vanita Gupta, the chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights groups. https://www.nytimes.com///youtube-bans-qanon-violence.html

An important reminder that data don't speak for themselves. Messengers (and the trust they build with their audience) are often just as important as the message. https://www.washingtonpost.com//were-public-health-expert/

"Half of shooting victims did not make the news." New research on media coverage of gun violence shows that selective reporting likely limits the public's understanding of the issue: https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S0091743520302991

Allowing for misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news to flourish were like Big Tobacco’s bronchodilators, which allowed the cigarette smoke to cover more surface area of the lungs. - Facebook's former director of monetization, Tim Kendall Using tobacco industry tactics and secondhand smoke as metaphors for online misinformation, this op-ed makes clear the true costs to society and why we need regulatory change to clean up our digital landscape. https://www.technologyreview.com//social-media-facebook-t/

Excellent op-ed frames voting as a health issue. We'd love to see more articles like this! https://www.minnpost.com//we-owe-it-to-our-children-and-o/

New, from the BMSG blog! In letting Trump control the narrative, the NYT and other media outlets lost the real election story: One of the longest and most vexing problems in United States elections is the large part of the electorate who does not vote. Where are the stories on that? Or the youth vote? Or efforts to combat voter intimidation and suppression? These stories are harder to tell, but the health of our democracy depends on them. http://www.bmsg.org//how-the-new-york-times-ceded-the-ele/

He legitimized them in a way that nobody in the community expected. It’s unbelievable. The celebration is incredible, said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE. In my 20 years of tracking terrorism and extremism, I never thought I’d see anything like this from a U.S. president. https://www.washingtonpost.com//trump-debate-rightwing-ce/