The Research Report
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January 31, 2012 06:00 AM
The Algorithm Method
Making news decisions in a clickocracy
Journalists relate to their audiences differently in the age of online news, according to C. W. Anderson, in recent articles in Journalism and the International Journal of Communication. Both articles are based on research Anderson conducted in Philadelphia newsrooms. (Anderson is a professor of media culture at the College of Staten Island and blogs for NiemanLab; he...
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August 24, 2011 03:21 PM
Happy Birthday, Wikipedia!
Ten years of Wikipedia and their neutral point of view policy
Wikipedia is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, to the surprise of skeptics who never thought a volunteer-written, open-access encyclopedia would make it. To them, the online encyclopedia appeared doomed to suffer from either a lack of participation or, alternatively, the whims of overzealous or malicious users. Yet, Wikipedia has become, as BusinessWeek put it, “the first stop...
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July 5, 2011 08:06 PM
The Climate for Science Reporting
A new report shows a surge in climate change coverage
Early in December 2009, politicians, media representatives, and NGO officials queued up outside the Bella Center from eight in the morning until late in the afternoon for the Copenhagen climate-change summit—in freezing conditions: “Some…gave up, complaining that global warming had not reached Scandinavia.” This may be the only light-hearted moment in James Painter’s “Summoned by Science: Reporting Climate Change...
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May 1, 2011 08:00 AM
How to Dow
Careless coverage of the Dow Jones Industrial Average can mislead readers
Stock-market indices offer an alluring impression of rigor and certainty. But what do they really mean? The University of Michigan political scientist Arthur Lupia and five colleagues argue in the January 2011 edition of Political Communication that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (though they could have picked the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, or others) misrepresents the value of...
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February 23, 2011 04:45 PM
The Public Screen
A study on collective viewing experiences
The television set had arrived in the majority of American households by 1955. Inspired by the popular ideals of domesticity, “togetherness,” and a new culture of immense consumer spending, middle-class families rearranged their living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, dens, and converted garages around the new medium. Like the piano and the fireplace before, television became the center of family...
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January 27, 2011 10:15 AM
Any Questions?
Sociolinguists study the changes in presidential press conferences over five decades
Sociolinguists are sociologists who study how people talk to one another. They are typically interested in naturally occurring speech, but unfortunately (for them) the preponderance of such communication disappears into the ether as it’s spoken. So where can the poor sociolinguist, who cannot be surreptitiously recording the couple at the next table at Starbucks, find caches of this naturally...
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December 1, 2010 04:45 PM
In ACORN’s Shadow
A new analysis of the community-organizing group's history shows the media was less than fair
Remember ACORN, the community-organizing group that got caught in the electoral crossfire between one-time community organizer Barack Obama and a highly motivated, conspiracy-minded contingent of conservative activists? The repeated attacks on ACORN for “voter fraud” moved into Sarah Palin’s speeches and inspired John McCain in a televised presidential debate to suggest that ACORN “is now on the verge of...
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September 30, 2010 05:21 PM
Snapshots of War
WikiLeaks isn't the first site to publish controversial material from a war zone
In April, WikiLeaks released a graphic video entitled “Collateral Murder,” which shows U.S. soldiers shooting from a helicopter on a group of Iraqis while making triumphant comments. The WikiLeak triggered heated discussions about who has the right to take and distribute war images and what is the proper language to use when speaking about the violence of war. But...
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July 6, 2010 12:36 PM
Philadelphia Story
A study in the City of Brotherly Love suggests what's been lost, and what can be gained
Everybody knows that newspapers have been cutting jobs, cutting services, cutting corners. It is not so widely acknowledged that these cuts seem to be keeping them in the ring. Advertising is down, circulation is down, stories and pages are down, but the boxer keeps getting up again. The fighter still remains.
But how to assess the impact of these...
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May 3, 2010 03:38 PM
French Connections
What do different press styles have to do with distinct political cultures?
If you think about European print media at all, you are likely to think of newspapers that stake out ideologically precise points along the political spectrum from left to right, in contrast to an American press that is much more solidly committed to detached, objective reporting that balances the views of major parties—a Republican for every Democrat, a defense...
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February 25, 2010 03:35 PM
True to Form
Online journalism, like print journalism, can be a variety of things
Even the ways we think about revolutionary forces shape our revolutions. Revolutions are products of multiple institutional and personal decisions, inventions, and adaptations. This is as true of what we commonly call technological revolutions—including the digital revolution—as of others. Technology matters, of course, but the technology itself, be it a pencil or the Internet, is hard to separate from...
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January 8, 2010 07:34 PM
Beyond Transparency
Is more information always a good thing?
A picture is worth a thousand words—but to whom? To the people who see it? Or to those who present it as their carefully orchestrated version of reality? More readily accessible visualization of data does not necessarily translate into greater understanding, nor is more information more wisdom.
Such observations are leading some thinkers to question the virtues of the...
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December 8, 2009 05:28 PM
Mourning Becomes Electric
The rituals of grief can still bring a fragmented audience together
Fragmented. Few words are used more often to describe the media environment today. People disappear into their iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys, Kindles, and laptops. They tweet, blog, Facebook, podcast, and wend their way through their favorite cultural and political sites. In short, they manufacture their own media bubbles and seem to live in separate universes.
Nonetheless, some iconic events win the...
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October 6, 2009 09:34 PM
Opening Minds
Can the media persuade audiences to embrace a fresh outlook?
Viewers of The Colbert Report do not all see the same show. Liberals see host Stephen Colbert as a liberal acting the part of intolerant blowhard. Conservatives, in contrast, identify with many of the attitudes Colbert affects and relish the ridicule he heaps on liberal nostrums and liberal guests. Both groups think The Colbert Report is funny. Both groups think...
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Desks
The Audit Business
- BusinessWeek Goes Inside a Critical Hacking Scandal Meeting Murdoch, at a fork in the road, chose the coverup
- Audit Notes: Off the Hamster Wheel, The Dumb Money, iPad Newspapers
The Observatory Science
- What Drives Public Opinion About Climate Change? Politicians, economy more influential than media coverage, study says
- The Presidential Energy Narrative Campaign coverage takes on a green hue
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- Some Mistakes at MoneyWatch A little more homework needed on Social Security, please
- It’s Caucus Day in Colorado: Where’s the Content? Campaign presented as theater in the Denver Post
