This document discusses the role of media in shaping health behaviors through three main effects:
1. High-profile celebrity illnesses that are highly covered by the media can increase awareness and testing/screening rates for similar conditions.
2. Both television programming content and advertising can influence consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods, with more unhealthy foods portrayed in programming and healthy foods more common in ads.
3. Television programming can be leveraged as a health promotion tool through advocacy-focused messaging, entertainment-education storylines, and ads cooperating with health product/service marketers to modify consumer behaviors.