The amount of gun violence in the top-grossing PG-13 movies has more than tripled since 1985, and in 2012 it exceeded the gun violence in the biggest R-rated movies, according to researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Ohio State University. The overall rate of violence in the biggest box-office movies has more than doubled since 1950, the researchers report in "Gun Violence Trends in Movies," published in Pediatrics.
Press Releases
How campaign micro-targeting affects fact-checking of political ads
In "Messages, Micro-targeting, and New Media Technologies," published in The Forum in October, Kathleen Hall Jamieson writes that the trend in politics of micro-targeting ads toward individual voters makes it more difficult for reporters and scholars to know "who is saying what to whom, where and with what effect."
Nursing intervention helps mentally ill people with HIV
Having trained nurses follow up on medication use with mentally ill patients who are HIV positive was effective both at improving the patients’ quality of life and biological markers for the human immunodeficiency virus, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The study is thought to be the first to
Study: Cigarette pack warnings more effective combining text and images
Cigarette-pack warning labels that combine graphic images with lengthier explanations of the dangers of smoking were found to be more effective than images or brief warnings alone at convincing smokers to consider quitting, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and at
Kathleen Hall Jamieson Delivers Sackler Keynote on Science Communication
What are the roles of scientists and journalists as “custodians of the knowable” and what happens when they get it wrong? How do they insulate themselves from charges of ineptness or partisanship? Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, delivered the keynote lecture on Sept. 24 at the National Academy of Sciences’
Report: Congress Could Make America Safer
On the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a bipartisan task force of homeland-security experts, government officials and former members of the 9/11 Commission has released a report outlining the need for stronger and clearer Congressional oversight of national security.
APPC study published in Communication Research
Research examining the effects of adolescent exposure to sexual content on television conducted by APPC scholars Jeffrey A. Gottfried, Ph.D., Sarah Vaala, Ph.D., Amy Bleakley, Ph.D., Michael Hennessy, Ph.D., and Amy Jordan, Ph.D., has been published in the journal Communication Research (February 2013). Article abstract: Using the Integrated Model of Behavioral Prediction, this study examines
As the national adult suicide rate increases, news stories about suicides during the holidays grow in number
A common misperception about the end of year holidays is that more people commit suicide during this period than at other times in the year. Since 2000, the Annenberg Public Policy Center has been tracking press reporting about this widespread belief. In the millennium year of 1999, APPC identified over 60 stories that ran during
Weakness in working memory predicts progression of alcohol use in early adolescents
Research points to the potential for prevention Weakness in a cognitive skill called "working memory" predicts both the initiation and the escalation of alcohol use in adolescents ages 10 to 15, according to a longitudinal study by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of
In Election’s Closing Days, Ad Campaign Urges Battleground Stations to Reject Deceptive Outside Group Ads and Increase On-Air and Online Fact Checking
To remind radio and TV stations in battleground markets of their right to reject deceptive outside group ads and to thank those that have been fact checking deceptive political content, FlackCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), will spend $40,000 airing a version of this radio ad (transcript below) across 10 battleground