Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG)
The Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) is a California-based research organization that monitors and analyzes media content. The group provides education and training to activist organizations, journalists, and public health officials on how to spread public health messaging. BMSG is a project of the Public Health Institute, an left-of-center think tank. 1 BMSG advocates left-of-center policies on public health. 2
Contents
BMSG was founded in 1993 by University of California public health professor Lawrence Wallack and public health graduate student Lori Dorfman, who went on to become the group’s director. 3
Initiatives
The Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) analyzes public health-related content in news coverage and social media as a means of developing and consulting on talking points for policymakers and the public. The group provides training and consultation to advocates, and teaches journalists to incorporate BMSG-recommended messaging into their reporting on public health issues. 4
Framing 101
BMSG’s messaging guidance notes a “a strong cultural tendency in the United States” to focus on “individual behavior.” The group argues this “work[s] against” achieving BMSG-advised policies. BMSG also argues that “structural racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and more” are “underlying root causes” of health issues. 5
Media Advocacy 101
BMSG recommends media advocacy to “put pressure on policymakers” by mobilizing activists and using BMSG-advised points when covering public health. 6
Marketers
BMSG monitors and analyzes corporations and businesses that advertise and sell food and other products it considers unsafe or unhealthy for consumers. The group also researches at-risk communities within the United States it argues are more susceptible to long-term health risks. BMSG has previously advocated against “goodwashing,” or a process when a corporation attaches its brand to a charity program. BMSG alleges that some corporations engage in “strategic acts of generosity” to “distract consumers from the company’s otherwise nefarious practices.” 7
COVID-19
In December 2020, BMSG issued guidance for public officials on distributing COVID-19 vaccines. The group instructed authorities to “bring racial equity forward” and “name racial equity explicitly” in their vaccination messaging and advertising. BMSG also cited arguments that allege essential workers belong to racial minority groups to encourage officials into making their vaccinations a higher priority. 8
The guidance also encouraged several left-of-center policy measures such as releasing low-risk inmates from prisons, implementing universal basic income, preventing evictions, and suspending rent collections for the duration of the pandemic. 8
Leadership
Lori Dorfman became the Berkeley Media Studies Group’s (BMSG) first associate director in 1993 and has worked as director since 1998. She holds a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, where she teaches a course on mass communication. 9
Financials
The Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) has received funding from left-of-center organizations including the Kresge Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Endowment, the California Wellness Foundation, and the Hope and Heal Fund. 10
BMSG also receives funding from its parent organization, the Public Health Institute. Donations to the group go through the Institute. 11