An article in Vice features new findings from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA that found Gen Z and Gen Alpha media consumers, ages 10 to 24, prefer emotionally available male characters over unknowable, emotionally distant superheroes by a huge margin. The study, titled “Teens & Screens,” is part of the center’s Teen Snapshot series, and gets into specifics of characters already on TV that are shining examples of these preferred male archetypes. Read more about UCLA in today’s Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and other outlets.  

More highlights from UCLA in the News: March 3, 2026

Mobile clinic brings mammograms to women on Skid Row | Los Angeles Times

Horton was one of the first patients of a new women’s health initiative from the UCLA Department of Family Medicine. Staffed by third-year UCLA Medical School students and led by [Dr. Mary] Marfisee, a UCLA assistant clinical professor of family medicine, the clinic treats mission residents as well as unhoused people living in the surrounding neighborhood. The new cancer screening project arrives at a time of dire financial pressures on county public health services.

Trump says U.S. military operations in Iran could last a while | Los Angeles Times

Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology who teaches courses on Iran and Middle East politics at the UCLA International Institute, said Iran has its own capabilities to fight back regionally, and is in a neighborhood of countries with their own capabilities, too — including Saudi Arabia and Israel. “The Middle East has more powers than just the United States as an actor,” Harris said … Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, said whether the U.S. can get out of Iran on a relatively short timeline depends on whether those in power in Iran now are willing to negotiate terms that Khamenei and other leaders who have been killed rejected. (Also: Radd was featured by KCBS-TV, KNBC-TV and Spectrum News 1; UCLA’s Dalia Dassa Kaye was featured by KTLA-TV; and UCLA’s James Gelvin was featured by KABC-TV.)

Experts talk how to navigate distressing news stories | Associated Press

For years, Dana Rose Garfin, a psychologist and professor at University of California, Los Angeles, has been studying “cascading collective traumas” and researched how the media’s continuous coverage of COVID-19 increased anxiety. Garfin said the reality is that people don’t consume the news how they used to. Instead of reading a newspaper or flipping on the evening news once a day, people are “much more exposed” to current events.

Trump administration drops defense of law firm sanctions | Wall Street Journal

“This affected the interest of big law firms doing what they normally do, to stand up for people without representation,” said Scott Cummings, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “In that sense, Trump achieved something important that will linger.”

Yes, the de minimis tariff exemption is still suspended | Marketplace

Christopher Tang, a global supply chain management professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said whether this current tariff landscape is better or worse for consumers depends on where they’re buying from. “If you buy something from China now, on paper, the tariff is actually lower than before,” Tang said. “But if you buy something from Europe now it’s actually more expensive.”

Historians resist Trump’s effort to police the past | Salon

Millward and his compatriots are occupying a vital part of the growing resistance against Trumpism. “They are modeling democratic vigilance,” said Peter McLaren, emeritus professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The Smithsonian Institution does not belong to transient administrations but to historical time itself. If memory is reduced to décor, democracy will breathe shallowly.”

Could these weird stars just be overgrown planets? | Space.com

As it turns out, the line between stars and planets might be more of a gray, fuzzy continuum, according to University of California, Los Angeles, astrophysicist Gregory Gilbert and his colleagues in a recent paper published in The Astronomical Journal. (Gilbert was quoted.)

What actually works for cancer screening? | Yahoo Life

Dr. Fola May, a UCLA Health cancer prevention researcher and gastroenterologist, tells Yahoo that there are several scientifically backed things you can do to lower your risk of getting cancer: maintain a healthy weight, limit — or avoid — alcohol, don’t smoke or use tobacco products and regularly engage in physical activity (even a daily 10-minute burst of activity helps).

Supposedly harmless peptide may be linked to Alzheimer’s disease | Medical Xpress

David Teplow, an emeritus professor of neurology at UCLA and a leading Alzheimer’s researcher, said Aβ has been believed to be the culprit of the disease for decades. In an independent assessment of Raskatov’s work, Teplow said this is now changing.