Relationship between Drug Overdose Mortality and Coverage of Drug-Related Issues in US Television Political Campaign Advertising in the 2012 and 2016 Election Cycles

Alene Kennedy-Hendricks is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy. Her research focuses on the impact of health and social policies on populations with substance use and mental health conditions. She also conducts research on the politics of policy making related to substance use, addiction, and the role of stigma.

alene@jhu.edu

Erika Franklin Fowler is a professor of government at Wesleyan University and codirector of the Wesleyan Media Project. Her research examines the content and effect of media messaging in electoral and health policy contexts. Her work has appeared in such outlets as the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Communication, and Health Affairs. Her health-related research in recent years has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the American Cancer Society.

Sachini Bandara is an assistant professor of mental health and deputy director of the Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the evaluation of mental health and substance use policies; her interests include examining the impacts of financing and delivery system reforms, policies affecting individuals involved in the carceral system, and policy responses to the US overdose crisis. She also conducts research to identify communication strategies that can reduce public stigma and improve support for public health policies.

Laura M. Baum is project manager of the Wesleyan Media Project. Based at Wesleyan University, she manages ongoing operations of the project's real-time tracking of television advertising; student management, web, and social media content; and data visualizations. She holds a BA from Brown University and a master's of urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota.

Sarah E. Gollust is an associate professor of health policy and management at the University of Minnesota and is an associate director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leaders. Her research examines the influence of the media and public opinion in the health policy process, the dissemination of research into policy making, and the politics of health policy. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the American Cancer Society.

Jeff Niederdeppe is a professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. His research examines the mechanisms and effects of mass media campaigns, strategic health messages, and news coverage in shaping health behavior, health disparities, and social policy. He publishes his work across disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals in fields of communication, public health, health policy, and medicine, and his work has been funded in recent years by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Colleen L. Barry is the Fred and Julie Soper professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research examines how health and social policies can affect a range of outcomes, including access to medical care and social services, care quality, health care spending, financial protection, and mortality. She conducts empirical research to understand how communication strategies influence public attitudes about health insurance, drug addiction, mental illness, gun policy, and obesity and food policy.