Press Releases

At a press conference at the National Constitution Center on Friday, September 16, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O’Connor will release an Annenberg Public Policy Center sponsored report titled “The Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools,” recommending actions that the federal, state, and local governments, as well as families

The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, in partnership with APPC’s Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics, the National Conference on Citizenship, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, and the American Bar Association Division for Public Education, produced “Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools,”

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.  

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

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)

Results released today from the National Annenberg Survey of Youth (NASY) indicate that although concerns about excessive Internet use may be justified, heavy use of television may be an even larger concern. In one of the most extensive national surveys of media habits over a two-year period, six different types of media use were identified

Although athletics is a healthy and popular extracurricular activity in American high schools, it also has its risks. The recent poker craze among adolescents in the U.S. was driven largely by interest in poker play among high school male athletes, a just-released analysis of adolescent gambling in the National Annenberg Surveys of Youth (NASY) indicates.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded APPC $200,000 to begin work on a multi-phase project that seeks to advance knowledge about effective uses of health communication and disseminates its findings through a dynamic website. APPC scholars will begin by producing a series of reports that assess the strengths and limitations of the major theories

A controlled experimental study of over 5300 smokers conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) posted to the FDA comment website (http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2010-N-0568-0006) today shows that multiple versions of the proposed warnings produce desired effects by increasing negative feelings respondents experience about smoking a next cigarette. “By failing to study the labels’

Results released today from the National Annenberg Survey of Youth reveal that 1 out of 7 or 14% of adolescents and young adults have experienced being a victim of cyberbullying (see Table 1 below). Those who experience cyberbullying report higher rates of thinking seriously about suicide in the past year (see Table 2 below). The