, washington, dc; sandra de castro buffington, director, hollywood health & society, usc annenberg norman lear center, beverly hills, california. the media obviously influences how people create their opinions, particularly about addiction and treatment issues in behavior health. and doug, why don't we review what we mean about media today. some time ago, marshall mcluhan said that the medium is the message and that is more true today than ever. media have proliferated and they now permeate our society. we're surrounded by it constantly 24/7 and users increasingly are defining what the media are and what those media mean to the rest of us. and mark, why is it important for the media to really understand addiction, treatment, and behavioral health? i think as doug just said, it's 24/7, people rely on the media to get their information and, as the media reaching out, people are forming opinions, ideas, attitudes about what they think about addiction and mental illness based on what they're seeing on these tv shows or seeing on the internet or hearing on the radio. so if what they hear is accurate, they