Archive for year: 2015
November 9th
The relationship between television viewing and unhealthy eating: Implications for children and media interventions.
It’s so sad to know how much TV advertisments can influence what we eat especially for children. “Humans possess an innate preference for sweet, high-fat and salty foods, and a reluctance to try unfamiliar foods, however, early experiences are critical in shaping individual food preferences”(pg 2). I do not believe TV advertisments should take the full blame for the increase in child obesity because children do not have full control of what they eat. Parents can help influence healthy foods from the beginning because they can literally control what their children eat. What if children never tasted junk food? Would they still crave it?
When children start to develop their own food preferences they do so mostly from past food experiences. In additon, TV advertisments that encourage junk food also help influence unhealthy decisions. When children are sitting at home watching fast food advertisments on TV they may crave what they are watching because the advertisments do a pretty good job in selling their products. For example, the study in this article shared how children had higher ratings for certain foods after watching an advertisment about it compared to those who didn’t watch an advertisment. This study only proves how important media literacy is for children especially because of the impact advertisments have on children’s health.
What’s a good solution for this problem?
Media literacy can be extremly helpful for children to help them understand advertisments about unhealthy foods. However, I agree most with the solution of parent-child communication. From personal experience, my parents would sometimes critize TV adverisments by pointing out the facts about them. In fact, when I watchTV advertisments today I am very skeptical because my parents influenced me to not believe everything we see on TV. Moreover, like the article mentioned this type of communication could have some negative or positive impacts on children. What solution would be best?
Nov. 8 Yosso-Cultural Capital
First of all, I find it sad that this idea of valuing cultural capital needs to be turned into a formal theory and study in order to be recognized. It seems like such basic idea that all cultures have value. As I read I began to understand what Critical Race Theory is and how it came about. I’ve heard the term bantered about in other readings and our discussions without fully understanding what it is.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard the code words “cultural difference”. I have also often heard what the author calls ‘deficit’ thinking, about children come without proper foundational cultural skills, and that parents do not care about education, and then these ideas are used to justify lack of success. Even well meaning teachers can fall into this line of thinking. As I read, I thought of various cultural capital, and I was glad when the article finally got to the point of saying what is considered to be the actual categories of capital. I was not surprised to see familial, linguistic, and social capital in the list. Aspirational, navigational, and resistant capital were new ideas to me. The idea of aspirations beyond what someone has the means to attain really struck me. How important it is to make those aspirations more attainable, and to assist students to capitalize on the navigational skills they have, or have observed in their families. In my curriculum class we discussed that students need to know how to ask for help and find it when they need. To consider that students of color have experience to draw on would be helpful. I think I will be more sensitive to all of this in the future. It takes effort to learn the cultural strengths of the students and community and find ways to incorporate them into the classroom learning.
Most of my students have many of their cousins either living with them, or attending our school. Many different relatives take turns picking up kids from school. Grandparents are often living in the same home. Because of this connection, I find that my students are very caring to one another, and often know how to care for younger siblings or cousins. Many of my students can already speak 3 languages in first grade: English, Spanish, Mixteco. Their parents value teachers and view us as professionals who know what is best for their children and rarely question our teaching or decisions. Helping students to capitalize on these strengths is important. They are true fighters and most of them exhibit a great desire to learn. Their parents come to conferences, school evening activities, and do this even though they are not understanding everything. To me, this is another strength of the community.
Beyond the reading, I learned a lot from reading Angie’s post which again brought these issues to life.
HCAHPS. How patients are changing Health Care
HCAHP. How patients are changing Health Care
HCAHPS stands for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. HCAHPS provides a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perspectives on hospital care. Before HCAHPS there was no standardized way to collect data, and the problem was you could not effectively compare hospitals and care. So care and services could not be effectively judged. So the impact of this Survey is Financial. This influences the amount of money hospitals get from the State and Government.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. People should know beforehand the type and quality of care they will receive. And the health care team should know how they are performing and how they could improve. This will drive up the quality of care and improve the hospital setting for the patients and staff. The down side is not all patients take part in the surveys and the patients who take part were either very happy or very unhappy with the service. Thus the data is not comprehensive and all inclusive. I don’t think with holding funding from hospitals is the answer because this is a very sharp double edged sword. Normally it is the poorer hospitals or communities that suffer the most. In poorer communities the hospitals depend on the Government money in order to remain solvent and keep the hospital doors open. But whether the solution is HCAHPS have definitely improved the quality of care patients receive. I have personally seen the effects of this. Health care staff are more attentive to patients. Patients rounding has improved and so has pain control and specifically the sharing of information has increased. Patients are now more aware of what is happening during their stay and what they could expect. This awareness gives patients better control over the environment. Another positive effect that I have seen is patient education has increased and by this I mean health care staff are spending more time educating their patients on medication, conditions and procedures. Health care is part of the service industry whether we want to believe it or not and the clients have a right to choose and expect a certain level of quality in their care
November 9th
let me begin by saying this is by far the most interesting article thus far. I’m intrigued because we as communication major,s are learning daily still the influences media has on not only ourselves but, on the younger generations behind us. As I’m reading the article I’m blown away when it says something like studies have not documented the relationship between media literacy and food advertising.What! As we know media literacy for children will help them identify what and why commercials are being targeted towards them. It can also educate them that child hood obesity is serious and that they as children are at great risk. At some pint these kids might be shopping with their parents and say ” they package that box of cereal like that because..” kids are sponges and if we teach them they will learn. I think if there is no evidence that it’s working then someone isn’t teaching it right. I believe that we must continue to early educate the youth on media literacy. If some parents aren’t willing to be mindful of what junk they buy their kids then at least kids can help themselves by knowing that they are the target of companies wanting to make profit and don’t care about them being obese. I understand blame is put on the parents but their are so many factors of why childhood obesity happens but the choice is made when we buy those non nutritional items at the store and then continue to go eat at fast food because the house hold is tired fro a long day at work. I buy lots of fruit and my daughter loves it.
play time
I agree with the article by Harris and Bargh on multiple points. Television is a very persuasive tool used by these food companies. When a child sees a giant cartoon pitcher of Cool Aide doing all sorts different extreme sports they are going to think that drinking Cool Aide is the way to be cool or a cartoon leprechaun flying around eating marshmallows in his cereal, I mean how fun is that in the morning? With all the ads on television in the faces of our children it is an uphill battle and I think it really comes down to parents giving their kids healthy meals. That said its not easy to make sure your kid is eating healthy all the time but the most important thing is to set a good example as parents. What your kid sees you do they will want to do so eating healthy is hard but a great thing it start off the bat with young children and that will make dessert so much better. Unless your a grandparent and they just do whatever they want. The commercials on channels for kids are bright and loud and they seem to hypnotize the children. Getting out and playing with them will help with both of these things, they won’t be watching T.V. and they will be working all that unhealthy food out of their system. Get out play for 60 minutes a day.
Session 11: Media Health Hazards?
Childhood and teen obesity levels have risen substantially in the last 30 years. The 2009 U.S. NIH studies reported by Harris and Bargh do not definitively prove direct causal effects between TV watching and obesity (also called adiposity, I just learned). However, the write-up concluded by suggesting that parents “restrict the amount of commercial television that their children watch, beginning at an early age.” Restricting TV watching reduces children’s exposure to unhealthy messages on television, and appears to be the most direct means to reduce unhealthy diet (Harris). Limiting TV also gets kids off the couch. Since this study, Michelle Obama has been passionate about children’s health. Her website encourages healthy eating and physical activity: Letsmove.gov.
In the Harris writeup, media literacy was regarded as a great tool against advertisements for unhealthy eating. The research correlated parents’ critical involvement with children’s TV viewing to a decrease in the consumption of unhealthy foods. Parents can devalue television and media for children at a young age. This helps kids prefer other activities as they age.
The study also showed that humans are prone to eat things that they consider tasty, but that environment can help determine what is tasty. “Humans possess an innate preference for sweet, high-fat and salty foods, and a reluctance to try unfamiliar foods. However, “repeated exposure increases liking of disliked foods and information that a new food tastes good, increased willingness to try the food.” To translate, parents that consistently provide healthy eating choices at home will help children begin liking those healthy foods.
One interesting study showed that children preferred food that was packaged in McDonalds wrappers, even if it wasn’t McDonalds food. Ah, the power of media.
Sternheimer, through Chapter 8 of Connecting Social Problems, again points away from media as the key cause of obesity. She suggests that children in poverty have less supervision and turn to the television and food for comfort. The poor don’t have access to public parks and extra curricular activities. But the poor are only 20% of the US population. Rich kids and middle class children are also overweight.
For me, the most damning sentence was Sternhehimer’s on page 211: Ironically, the rise of feminism coincided with increased attention to weight.” The rise of feminism has also coincided with the great rise of childhood obesity. When both parents work, who is watching the children? Who is sitting with them to decipher the messages of media? Who is helping them get outside and move their bodies, instead of watching hours of TV, alone and unsupervised? Could the feminist devaluation of homemaking and childcare be a leading cause of childhood obesity and eating disorders today?
Pipeline Repairs Will Take A Loooong Time
News is just breaking that the repair of the embattled trunk line delivering crude oil from Refugio’s onshore distribution facility to refineries in Kern County that ruptured last May and caused the Refugio Oil Spill may take a long, long time to repair.
While I have found such estimates to almost assuredly be overblown, the sheer order of magnitude (years) is quite noteworthy here and speaks to aging infrastructure that may not have been as well maintained as we would all like to think. The infrastructure crisis in the U.S. in not just a government issue: the private sector can be similarly cheap. We last, most dramatically, saw this with BP’s “run to failure” policy in Alaska and across various other global oil production units.
An aerial photo of the section of pipeline that ruptured on May 19, 2015 and ultimately sent crude oil into the ocean at Refugio State Beach. Federal investigators found extensive corrosion in that section of pipe. Image: John Wiley.
From the Pacific Coast Business Times:
excerpted from Alex Kacik’s November 5th 2015 piece Refugio oil spill pipeline might take five years to get back online
The pipeline that was responsible for the Refugio oil spill in May could take up to five years to get back online and the best-case scenario is 18 to 24 months, according to California Economic Forecast Director Mark Schniepp.
He spoke to a room full of the biggest oil players in Santa Barbara County, public officials and members of the Chumash on Nov. 5 about Santa Maria and the region’s economic future, which are inextricably tied to the oil and gas industry.
If Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline’s Line 901 remains dormant over the next three years, Santa Barbara County could lose out on an estimated $74 million, Schniepp told about 100 people at the Economic Action Summit at the Radisson in Santa Maria.
The county would potentially miss out on about $5 million in federal royalties, $37 million In property taxes, 155 jobs and $32 million in worker income.
“This could probably be expedited and, given the economic impacts I’m about to show you, it ought to be expedited,” Schniepp said about making Line 901 operational. “There are a lot of claimants losing a lot of dollars and will lose them going forward.”
…Exxon is the region’s biggest oil operator, producing nearly 30,000 barrels per day that generated nearly $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Exxon was on pace to make an estimated $636 million in Santa Barbara County in 2015, Schniepp said, but it has only generated an estimated $216.6 million because production was shut down after the May oil spill. About 65 jobs may be transferred to other Exxon facilities, he said
Santa Barbara County recently rejected Exxon’s emergency application to truck oil to refineries because the company did not prove that an emergency exists, the county said.
“It seems that we should probably do what we can do to get things up and running in order to enjoy the benefits we had prior to the shut down,” Schniepp said. “People are going to feel it.”
…Since the oil spill, public officials have called for more vigilant pipeline regulation, requiring the use of new technology and improving oil spill response. Gov. Jerry Brown signed three bills that require the California Fire Marshall to review oil pipeline conditions every year, not every five years as mandated by more lax federal regulations; aim to make oil spill response faster and more effective; and force intrastate pipelines to use the best-known technology such as automatic shutoff valves. Line 901 is an interstate pipeline.
