N. E. Marsden is an educator who specializes in media research. She is the founder and volunteer coordinator of FITMedia, Fairness, Integrity and Truth in Media, a broad-spectrum coalition of health, media and child advocacy organizations and professionals seeking transparency and child protection when marketers pay to embed messages in entertainment content, documentaries or news. For information on FITMEdia Coalition and the pending FCC rulemaking proceeding on embedded TV advertising, visit FITMedia.org

Blog Entries by N. E. Marsden

Proposed FCC Rules Will Put Glenn Beck on the Gold Standard

13 Comments | Posted December 14, 2009 | 10:45 AM (EST)


Glenn Beck's gold problem may soon be moot. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering rule amendments that will set a higher standard for disclosure of paid endorsements on broadcast and cable television. Beck is a poster child for the proposed amendments.

The Fox News commentator bullishly hypes...

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Health Care Rationing: Why the "R" Word is a Red Herring

15 Comments | Posted November 21, 2009 | 05:30 PM (EST)


America has long needed a rational discussion of what we as a society are willing to pay for in a health care system and how best to provide it. Part of that discussion is rationing.

For example, it is fair to say that most Americans do NOT want to...

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This Is Your Brain On Wall Street

1 Comments | Posted June 19, 2009 | 12:20 PM (EST)


What does a stock trader have in common with a cocaine addict anticipating a fix?

A lot, when you're looking at functional MRI scans of their brains. In both cases, red and yellow embers light up the nucleus accumbens, the command center for anticipating reward.

Ah yes,...
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Neurofinance: Gaming the Human Brain?

Posted May 4, 2009 | 06:01 PM (EST)


Wall Street has come up with a new twist on "insider trading" -- brain science.

Welcome to neuroeconomics and neurofinance -- controversial fields of research that give new meaning to the term, Pandora's Box.

For more than a decade, the advertising industry has used functional MRI (fMRI) and...

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Stealth Advertising: The Dangerous Sound of Media Silence

Posted August 8, 2008 | 04:40 PM (EST)


There's nothing philosophical about it. When a press release from 23 watchdog groups falls in the media "forest" and nobody hears it, as far as the public is concerned, it doesn't exist.

The same is true when advertising executives lobby FCC officials in closed door meetings that, from the...

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Embedded TV Ads: Here Comes the Spin

Posted July 25, 2008 | 05:34 PM (EST)


Product placement is finally on the FCC's radar, and pro-industry magpies are out in force trilling a consistent message: "Back off, Big Brother." We should not be surprised. Nor is it any wonder that a press release urging the FCC to take action, issued by 23 watchdog groups, including Campaign...

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