This mixed-methods study examines online comments (The Atlantic online, N = 326; NYTimes.com, N = 596) generated by two widely read articles challenging the scientific basis for U.S. government breastfeeding recommendations. The analysis focuses on commenter evaluations of the scientific evidence for breastfeeding. Results demonstrate that commenters socially represented breastfeeding science as a means for manufacturing convenience and also as a process that is prone to flaws in its production and application. Online commenters discussed their personal experiences (42%) with breastfeeding more than its evidence base (16%). Personal and social experiences were used as filters to judge the merits of scientific arguments.

Authors of the knowledge gap hypothesis predicted television’s potential to narrow the gaps in some circumstances. This online experiment aimed to bound the conditions that facilitate the leveling role of audiovisual news for a foreign-born audience ( N = 137) residing in the United States. Results showed that audiovisual news narrowed the gaps by improving learning for those who scored low on language or U.S. education and by attenuating improvements in learning for those with high language or education scores. Conversely, text news widened the gaps by sizable gains in learning for those with better language or more education.

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Is colorism in Hollywood a problem? A pilot study was conducted on two actresses, dark-skinned actress Lupita Nyong'o who won Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2014 for her portrayal of a slave Patsey in the 2013 movie "12 Years a Slave," 2013, and light-skinned actress Halle Berry who won Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for her portrayal of a widow Leticia Musgrove in the 2001 movie "Monster's Ball." Data obtained from the mixed-methods design employed in the study found a significant difference in how often an actress' complexion was used in a news story and how they were described using the language of racial capital. Contrary to expectations set by understanding of the concept of colorism, darker-skinned Nyong'o's racial capital was stated in the news less prominently than the racial capital of lighter-skinned Berry. Actresses' celebrity capital and ways of conversion of capital is visualized in Venn diagrams.

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