Since we began our annual study, the number of stories supporting the myth has declined. But surprisingly, the number of stories each year claiming that the link is real remains stubbornly difficult to eliminate.
Health and Risk Communication
Dan Romer Testifies at House Subcommittee Hearing on Internet Gaming
On Tuesday the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trades met to discuss the need for regulation to protect consumers from the risks associated with online gambling. Dan Romer, director of APPC’s Adolescent Communication Institution, shared research findings from the National Annenberg Survey of Youth on the adverse effects of gambling on
APPC launches seminar series on the neuroscience of communication
Dr. Uri Hasson, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, delivered the first seminar in the series, “Face to Face, Brain to Brain: Exploring the Mechanisms of Dyadic Social Interactions,” on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. The seminar was held in APPC’s atrium before an audience of graduate students and scholars. Seminar abstract: Cognitive neuroscience experiments typically isolate
APPC Health Communication team published in Health Education & Behavior
Lead author Amy Bleakley, Ph.D., Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., both Senior Research Analysts, Martin Fishbein, Ph.D., the former director of the Health Communication program at APPC, and Amy Jordan, Ph.D., director of the Media and the Developing Child program, co-authored a paper – "Using the Integrative Model to Explain How Exposure to Sexual Media Content Influences
Participating in Online Web Discussions Associated With Rise in Suicidal Risk in Young People, APPC Study Finds
A 24-year-old told readers of Reddit (www.reddit.com/r/suicidewatch) of his intention to end his life, a forecast that proved accurate (see http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/31/reddit-suicide-how-the-internet-can-help-and-hurt.html). A log of the comments posted to him between the time of his announcement and his death revealed that although many offered help, some openly encouraged him to go through with the act.
Student Drug Testing Only Shows Effects Among Girls in High Schools With Good Social Climates; Regardless of Climate, No Deterrent Effect for Boys, APPC Study Finds
Research conducted with over 940 high school students in two nationally representative surveys finds that male students in high schools that conduct student drug testing report no less recent use of alcohol, marijuana, or cigarettes than male students in schools without drug testing. Although there was evidence of effectiveness for female students, this only occurred
Popular PG-13 Movies Increasingly Portray Suicidal Behavior; No Difference in Highly Explicit Suicide Between R- AND PG-13-Rated Films
Annenberg Public Policy Center research analyzing 855 top box- office films from 1950 to 2006 shows that the portrayal of explicit and graphic suicide has tripled over that time. It also found no difference in the most explicit portrayals in films rated PG-13 versus those rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
APPC Adolescent Health Communication Scholars Published in Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology
APPC Senior Research Analyst Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., and Adolescent Communication Institute Director Dan Romer, Ph.D., were among the authors of a paper, “Multiple Method Contraception Use Among African American Adolescents in Four US Cities,” published in the journal Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology (2011). Their research is part of a project designed to test