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Research Publication Roundup: December 2019

A vibrant and collaborative interdisciplinary research culture at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media creates new knowledge, advances scholarship and helps reinvent media.

W. Horace Carter Distinguished Professor Francesca Dillman Carpentier recently published one of the first articles to directly evaluate the impact of Chile’s 2016 child-directed marketing regulation. More details on this study are listed below, along with a list of other recently published or presented scholarship by UNC Hussman faculty and students.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Austin, L., Gaither, B., & Gaither, K. (2019). Corporate social advocacy as public interest communication: Exploring perceptions of corporate involvement in controversial social-political issues. Journal of Public Interest Communication.

Through a nationally representative U.S. survey of 1,214 participants, this study examines attitudes toward the role of corporations in public interest communications and responses to recent high-profile corporate social advocacy cases. The researchers provide preliminary evidence for what types of public interests are most appropriate for organizations to address. Results suggest that corporations should engage in addressing important social issues, which is particularly noteworthy given that the U.S. population skews conservative.

Deery, C. B., Hales, D., Viera, L., Lin, F. C., Liu, Z., Olsson, E., Gras-Najjar, J., Linnan, L., Noar, S. M., Ammerman, A. S., & Viera, A. J., (2019). Physical activity calorie expenditure (PACE) labels in worksite cafeterias: Effects on physical activity. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1596.

Regular physical activity is an important component of healthy living and well-being. Calorie-only food labels at points of food purchase have had limited success in motivating people to change eating behaviors and increase physical activity. One new point-of-purchase approach to promote healthy behaviors is the addition of food labels that display the physical activity requirement needed to burn the calories in a food item. The researchers compared these activity-based calorie-expenditure food labels with calorie-only labels among 366 participants at three Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina worksite cafeterias. Results suggest that calorie-expenditure food labels may result in limited increases in physical activity.

Dillman Carpentier, F. R., Correa, T., Reyes, M., & Taillie, L. S. (2019). Evaluating the impact of Chile’s marketing regulation of unhealthy foods and beverages: Preschool and adolescent children’s changes in exposure to food advertising on television. Public Health Nutrition.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of Chile’s 2016 regulation restricting child-directed marketing of products high in energy, saturated fats, sodium and sugars on reducing children’s exposure to “high-in” television food advertising. The researchers found that children’s and adolescents’ exposure to high-in food advertising on popular broadcast and cable television decreased significantly but was not eliminated from their viewing.

Hall, M. G., Byron, M. J., Brewer, N. T., Noar, S. M., & Ribisl, K. M. (2019). Interest in illicit purchase of cigarettes under a very low nicotine content product standard. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 21(1), S128-S132.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering a very low nicotine content product standard to reduce nicotine in cigarettes. The researchers conducted an online experiment and survey of 1,712 U.S. adult smokers to examine whether learning about the potential adoption of a very low nicotine content standard increased smokers’ interest in illegal purchases of cigarettes with regular nicotine content. Results suggest a very low nicotine content standard could increase smokers’ interest in illicit purchases of regular nicotine cigarettes.

Reid, A. (2019). Deciding Fair Use. Michigan State Law Review, 2019(3).

To tackle difficult questions about deciding copyright fair use, this article explores the nature of fair use, examines who decides fair use, and discusses why it matters who decides fair use. This article lays bare the reality that who decides the question of copyright fair use is nakedly political.