April 2008 ... “Feminism Ain’t Funny: Woman as ‘Fun-killer’ in the American Sitcom”: Funded by an AASU internal grant, Leigh E. Rich and Jack Simmons presented this research examining how gender role construction has changed during the era of television from 1949 to the present at the Southeast Women’s Studies Association conference in Charlotte, N.C. Data from the project suggest that Second and Third Wave Feminism did not bring equality to television’s men and women but rather role reversal. Where once television women were childlike subordinates to their male counterparts, now men are depicted as irresponsible children women must mother and discipline. A journal article based on this research is currently under review.
Founded June 2007
Established May 2008
June 2009 ... “Breast Cancer Survivorship Clinic”: Funded by a Southeast Georgia Cancer Coalition Regional Program of Excellence grant, a collaboration of clinicians and researchers completed this Memorial University Medical Center program that consisted of a breast cancer survivorship clinic and a research study conducted during the clinic sessions. The research study, entitled “A Qualitative Approach to Discovering the Lived-Experience of Breast Cancer Survivors During the First Year Post-Completion of Multi-Modality Therapy,” was developed in 2007. Leigh E. Rich led the qualitative data analysis.
January 2009 ... “The TV Diet: Food Choices Endorsed on American Television”: Begun in 2005, Michael Mink presented his completed research examining the nutritional content of television food advertisements as part of the Robert I. Strozier Faculty Lecture Series. Dr. Mink’s findings indicate that food endorsed on television provides a significant under-supply of certain essential nutrients and a significant oversupply of others. Moreover, there is a dearth of nutritional public service announcements to combat the onslaught of advertisements promoting an unbalanced diet. Watch a TV interview with Dr. Mink: [add URL here].
April 2008 ... “The Afterbirth of the Clinic: A Foucauldian Perspective on House M.D. and American Medicine in the 21st Century” was published in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 51(2): 220-237. A collaborative research project that includes professors from AASU and SCAD (Leigh E. Rich, Jack Simmons, David Adams, Scott Thorp, and Michael Mink), “The Afterbirth of the Clinic” uses Michel Foucault’s 1963 The Birth of the Clinic and the Fox television program House M.D. to examine current philosophical issues in the American medical system. To read the entire paper, please visit [add URL here].
August 2008 ... A former full-time political journalist, Leigh E. Rich attended the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver as a freelance writer for the Savannah Morning News and The Inkwell. During the convention, Dr. Rich spoke with Obama adviser Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration and attended invitation-only gatherings with former President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and former Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D-Penn.) as well as a panel discussion on health care hosted by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. She also covered the Obama-McCain election for La Voz Latina, Savannah’s Spanish newspaper.
November 2009 ... “A Consumer-Based Health Behavior Model”: Missing from health promotion theory is a consumer-based model that equips public health professionals with the skills to alleviate the current and growing “clutter crisis” (Goodman & Rushkoff, 2003) in the information environment. Michael Mink and Leigh E. Rich will present their original model that depicts the process by which persons make continuous health-related decisions within a consumer-based ecology at the American Public Health Association’s annual conference in Philadelphia.
Coming soon ... The official launch party for the Center for Public Health Media and Research is in the planning stages and will take place on the AASU campus in 2009. The Center for Public Health Media and Research was approved as an official center at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga., in May 2008. Initial community outreach projects and scholarly research are under way (see “Events” and “Research” for more information).
Recent News...
The Media and Public Health...
Modern Americans live in a cultural environment replete with information. Some of this information is actively sought, but much of it is uninvited consumer messages intended to sell products and services. These messages are notoriously one-sided, misleading, manipulative, and emotive. Advertisements have become ubiquitous in the modern “information environment,” appearing through traditional media (print, billboards, radio, and television), new media (e-mail, the Internet, mobile devices, and interactive technology), and a growing number of environmental niches (elevators, airports, shopping carts, gas stations, fast food packaging, etc.).
Today’s information environment is also ubiquitous. We are surrounded by information sources like never before in history, with fewer ways to “tune out.” In fact, the information environment has become so congested that even advertisers recognize a “clutter crisis” that grows increasingly more difficult to break through (Goodman & Rushkoff, 2003). This proliferation of information clutter does appear to have increased stress in Americans, but other effects on public health remain unknown. Moreover, few sources and resources in the information environment have been utilized for promoting healthy behaviors.
The Center for Public Health Media and Research is dedicated not only to studying the effects all forms of media have on health and culture but also to developing effective media-based public health campaigns that promote health in its broadest, most comprehensive sense.
Center for Public Health Media and Research
Armstrong Atlantic State University
CPHMR
Health and the Infoscape©
The mission of the Center for Public Health Media and Research (aka “CPHMR”) is to investigate the influence of modern media on health and health behavior and to utilize modern media to enhance public health.
The Center for Public Health Media and Research is part of the Department of Health Sciences and the College of Health Professions at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia.
