Consumer Law & Policy Blog

Table of Contents for Summer 2009 Issue of Journal of Consumer Affairs: Special Issue on Consumer's Health Literacy

Here is the table of contents for the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Summer 2009, Volume 43, Number 2 Special Issue on Consumer’s Health Literacy:

Editorial Prelude: On Break-up Clichés Guiding Health Literacy’s Future by Paula Fitzgerald Bone, Karen Russo France and Kathryn J. Aikin

Health Literacy for Improved Health Outcomes: Effective Capital in the Marketplace by Natalie Ross Adkins and Canan Corus

Health Insurance Literacy of Older Adults by Lauren McCormack, Carla Bann, Jennifer Uhrig, Nancy Berkman, and Rima Rudd

The Roles of Gender and Motivation as Moderators of the Effects of Calorie and Nutrient Information Provisions on Away-from-Home-Foods by Kenneth Bates, Scot Burton, Elizabeth Howlett, and Kyle Huggins

Using the Thrifty Food Plan to Assess the Cost of a Nutritious Diet by Parke Wilde and Joseph Llobrera

Misguided Optimism Among College Student Smokers: Leveraging Their Quit Smoking Strategies for Smoking Cessation Campaigns by Joyce M. Wolburg

Bits, Briefs and Applications:
The Effectiveness of Cigarette Warning Label Threats on Non-Smoking Adolescents by Lalla Ilhame Sabbane, Tina M. Lowrey, and Jean-Charles Chebat

Complex Sample Design Effects and Health Insurance Variance Estimation by  Robert B. Nielsen, Michael Davern, Arthur Jones Jr. and John L. Boies

Notes and Observations:
The Impact of Consumers' Health Literacy on Public Health by Marian Levy and Marla B. Royne

Editorial Postlude
Health Information Consumers Can't or Don't Want to Use by Herbert Jack Rotfeld

Reminder from China about the importance of Section 230 immunity

Discussion on a panel about the role of the Internet in social change in China, held at Computers Freedom and Privacy 2009 today, which is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, provided a stark reminder today of the crucial role played by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act  in our own system of free Internet speech.  Panelists discussed China’s multi-layer system of Internet censorship — at the national level, at the provincial level, at the Internet host level, and at the individual level.  Several blogging sites have shut themselves down entirely for “maintenance” or “upgrades,” with a promise to reopen on the morning of June 6.  They have had to do this because so many people were posting material for which they might be held responsible that they could not keep up with the necessary self-censorship.  It is, I might suggest, only a robust immunity for web hosts here in the United States that allows vigorous online debate.

The panelists have movingly discussed the role of the Internet in encouraging free expression in China, in the face of powerful censorship forces, and the creativity of Chinese bloggers in using code words and analogies — or words that mean one thing with one set of tones, and something very different when the tones are different.  Reminded me of Russian dissident literature in the 1960's and 1970's.

You can follow the rest of the program (as well as watching sessions already held) by live streaming video, or on Twitter. The next panel will address online activism elsewhere around the world.