On Tuesday, September 16, the Kaiser Family Foundation is sponsoring the briefing, “Hollywood & Health: Health Content in Popular Television.” At the event two new studies will be released: an innovative experiment with Grey’s Anatomy, one of television’s most watched shows, to measure the reach and effectiveness of an embedded health message in a specific episode of the show from the last television season, and a survey examining the prevalence and quality of health content in popular, scripted prime time television.

While the American public obtains content in a multimedia environment ranging from so called old media like newspapers to new media like blogs and online social networks, television maintains the ability to reach millions of people with relative ease. Popular prime time television’s primary purpose is to entertain the audience, but it also has the ability to convey messages about serious issues. Some key questions that will be examined at the briefing include: How much health content is there in prime time television? What is the depth of the health content on television? Does the public retain the messages they see on television shows? Do they take any action after absorbing these messages? Are show writers and researchers careful to be accurate about the health messages delivered on their shows?

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Vicky Rideout, M.A., Vice President, and Director,
Program for the Study of Media and Health, Kaiser Family Foundation

Presentation of Research Findings

How Healthy Is Prime Time?: An Analysis of Health Content in Popular Prime Time Television Programs
Sheila Murphy, Ph.D., Associate Professor,
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Television as a Health Educator: A Case Study of Grey’s Anatomy
Vicky Rideout, M.A., Kaiser Family Foundation

Panel Discussion

• Jackie Judd (moderator), Vice President and Senior Advisor for Communications, Kaiser Family Foundation
• Neal Baer, M.D., Executive Producer and Writer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Jay M. Bernhardt, Ph.D., M.P.H., Director, National Center for Health Marketing, CDC
• Sandra de Castro Buffington, Director, Hollywood, Health & Society, USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center
• Elizabeth Klaviter, M.F.A., Director of Medical Research, Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice

When: Tuesday, September 16, breakfast and registration at 9:00 a.m.
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Where: Barbara Jordan Conference Center (Kaiser Family Foundation Office)
1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC (one block west of Metro Center)

RSVP Required: To RSVP, please send your name and affiliation to tboston@kff.org.