A series of reports and fact sheets on topics related to children, media, and health that pull together the most relevant research on such issues as TV violence, teens online, media ratings, and children and video games.

Media, Youth and Civic Engagement – This fact sheet pulls together the latest information on the role of media in youth civic participation. It reviews how the media is used to get out the vote, ways television and movies depict politics and government, and how the Internet is used to engage youth (age 18-25) in civic and political activities (October 2004).

Tweens, Teens, and Magazines – This fact sheet explores the history of teen magazines that generally focus on 12-19 year olds, as well as trends affecting the genre, including advertising, readership, content, the role the magazines play in the lives of their readers, the effect of the web, and magazines for teen boys (September 2004).

Digital Divide…Where To Go From Here – This issue brief, “Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy,” includes new research findings and reviews the latest information on wiring the nation’s schools and libraries, including points of access, the speed of connection, and what children are doing online (September 2004).

Entertainment Education and Health in the United States – discusses the history of “entertainment education” – the use of entertainment media as a means of educating viewers about important health and social issues – and provides the leading examples of entertainment education from American television. The report also summarizes the results of research evaluating the effectiveness of this strategy for reaching the public with information about health issues (April 2004).

Role of Media in Childhood Obesity – reviews more than 40 studies on the role of media in the nation’s dramatically increasing rates of childhood obesity, pulling together research from fields such as child development, public health, and media studies. It also outlines media-related policy options that have been proposed by various health and consumer organizations to help address childhood obesity, and identifies ways media can play a positive role in helping to address this important public health problem (February 2004).

Media Literacy – focuses on media literacy, defines media literacy, details its role in education (K-12 and beyond), discusses the latest research findings on the effectiveness of media literacy, and includes resources and tips for parents and educators (December 2003).

Parents and Media – discusses parents’ concerns about the effects of media on their children; how they supervise and monitor their child’s exposure to media; their use of media ratings systems, the V-Chip and Internet filters; and what rules they set for their children (July 2003).

Children and the News: Coping with Terrorism, War, and Everyday Violence – explores how children reacted to televised accounts of the terrorism attacks of 9/11, as well as the Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and includes guidelines for parents on helping children cope with news coverage of traumatic events (April 2003).

TV Violence – provides key facts on the prevalence of violence on television, the results of scientific studies of the effects on children, and discusses the conclusions of the public health community as well as opposing viewpoints (April 2003).

Teens Online – key facts on the amount of time young people spend online; their favorite online activities; how and where young people access the web; and how use varies by age, gender and ethnicity (November 2002).

Rating Sex and Violence in the Media: Media Ratings and Proposals for Reform – provides an overview of parental advisory ratings for movies, television, music and video games, as well as proposals to reform those rating systems (November 2002).

Children and Video Games – key facts on the amount of time young people spend using video games, how use varies by age, gender and ethnicity, and the best research on the impact of video games on young players (October 2002).

Recent years have seen an explosion in electronic media marketed directly at the very youngest children in our society, yet very little is known about how these changes have played out in young people’s lives. In order to help understand the implications, the Foundation conducted a national study of more than 1,000 parents of children ages six months through six years. The findings are published in the report Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Report

Speaker Biographies

News Release

Webcast of Report Release

In 2003, researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health completed an analysis of trends in attention to and knowledge about health news using data from all Health News Index tracking surveys between 1996 and 2002. The resulting article, “Health News and the American Public, 1996-2002,” was published in the October 2003 edition of Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. The article is available online from Duke University Press.

Article (.pdf)

The Uninsured in Rural America

Summarizes the number of uninsured individuals in rural America, who they are, and the barriers to coverage they experience.

Fact Sheet (.pdf)

This chartbook presents analysis of national data on health insurance coverage based on a county’s proximity to a large urban area. It answers questions of how much health insurance coverage differs among people living in rural vs. urban communities, as well as, the differences in socio-economic and employment characteristics of those living in rural vs. urban counties.

Chartbook (.pdf)

On October 5, 2003, Governor Gray Davis signed into law the California Health Insurance Act of 2003 (also referred to as SB2). This law would require employers with 200 or more workers to either pay into a fund that will provide coverage to their workers or to pay for 80% of the premium costs for their workers and dependents (effective January 1, 2006). Medium-sized employers (between 50 and 199 workers) would be required either to pay into the fund or pay for 80% of the premium costs for their employees by January 1, 2007. This chartpack updates an earlier analysis of the 2002 Kaiser/HRET California Employer Health Benefits Survey to provide data in employment categories that are more closely aligned with those of the California Health Insurance Act of 2003.

Chartpack: The Health Insurance Act of 2003 (SB2): Updated Findings from the 2002 California Employer Health Benefits Survey (.pdf)

This issue paper provides information on the out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs that low-income individuals would face under the Senate versus the House Medicare prescription drug benefit legislation.

Issue Paper (.pdf)

This issue paper examines the policies in the HIFA waiver initiative that provide incentives for states to use Medicaid/SCHIP funds to assist in the purchase of private insurance options. It also reports on how states have responded to these new policies and what key policy questions are raised about premium assistance programs.

Issue Paper (.pdf)