Departments
Research Briefs
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Week of 10 December 1999 |
Vol. III, No. 17 |
Research Briefs
Capitol Hill's spin doctors. They stand behind, and occasionally in for, members of congress. They hate being called "spin doctors" but admit they "manage" press interactions to benefit their bosses. They are Capitol Hill's press secretaries, and they are the subject of a study by College of Communication Assistant Professor of Communication Ed Downes that explores the relationships between the secretaries, their members, and the media.
"The Hill's press secretaries are responsible for communications between the congressional office and the media," explains Downes. "Although policy positions and issues stances come directly from the members, the messages leading to and describing those choices are manipulated by the press secretary."
For instance, a member of congress' speeches or on-the-record comments are often straight from the mouth of the press secretary. "Thus, they in effect decide which news is shared with the citizenry," Downes explains. "Since 95 percent of representatives have a full-time press person, it's critical to understand the relationship between the members and their press secretaries, looking at who these people are and how they view their jobs, their politics, and themselves."
Downes found that press secretaries are in general young, highly educated, upwardly mobile communications professionals who have substantive experience, as opposed to the stereotype of a career government bureaucrat with a cushy patronage job.
Downes' focus group discussions and interviews with a large sample of press secretaries discovered they are deeply loyal to their members, willingly representing them even when their political beliefs collide. "They become confidants," he explains. "The longer they work for a member, the more likely they are to become trusted advisors."
What do press secretaries see as their duty towards maintaining the truth? "They believe it's essential to tell the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth," says Downes. "They readily admit to conveniently disregarding information that might make a story fuller or more accurate."
The research was presented at the November meeting of the National Communication Association.
Want to live? Exercise. So you weren't an athlete in college, and you're still pretty inactive. Take heart, so to speak -- a new study has found that even after a lifetime without regular exercise, starting a regimen right now could help you live longer by protecting against coronary heart disease. The study was conducted by Ralph D'Agostino, CAS mathematics professor, Dr. William Kannel, MED professor of medicine, Halit Silbershatz, CAS mathematics research assistant professor, and Dr. Scott Sherman of UCLA.
The team looked at the records of 2,372 participants in the landmark Framingham Heart Study, examining the incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality rates broken down by physical activity levels, both recent and long-ago. Participants had estimated and reported on their physical activity during two time periods, 1956 to 1958 and 1969 to 1973.
The investigators found that both men and women who were "less active" in the first assessment but "most active" in the second assessment had lower overall rates of death. A small mystery arose: they found that for men, large amounts of activity may protect against heart disease better than moderate amounts, while the reverse was true for women. "There is no obvious explanation for why this should be so," they note.
The team says that further research is needed to see if the effect is the same in minority and other traditionally understudied groups, why the results differ for men and women, how recent the physical activity must be to help the individual, and exactly how much exercise is needed to obtain this benefit.
They conclude, however, that physicians should counsel patients, regardless of age and activity level, to start an exercise regime. "For sedentary patients, it may never be too late to begin," they say.
The study was published in the November issue of the American Heart Journal.
"Research Briefs" is written by Janice Zazinski in the Office of Public Relations. To read more about BU research, visit http://www.bu.edu/research.