Matthew Nisbet
Professor of Communication at Northeastern University.
nisbetmc
Posts by this author
January 6, 2008
Over at Monkey Trials, Scott Hatfield suggests that in the next administration the new presidential science advisor should be a famous science popularizer such as EO Wilson or perhaps even better Neil deGrasse Tyson. Not only would these individuals have the breadth of knowledge to advise in…
January 6, 2008
In the 1984 presidential election pitting the charismatic Ronald Reagan against the plodding Walter Mondale, polls showed that a majority of Americans when asked specifically about their policy preferences favored Mondale's positions over Reagan's. Yet Reagan ended up winning in a landslide.
The…
January 6, 2008
James Watson outrageously suggested that Africans were genetically inferior.
If race is a biological fiction, what are the reasons for persistent belief in this social myth? My colleague Tim Caulfield, Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, points to research that shows…
January 6, 2008
When a candidate falters, the first person blamed is the chief campaign strategist. Six months ago Clinton's top adviser Mark Penn could do no wrong. He was the guru of micro-trends, a man who understood the smallest details and nuances of the American electorate. The Washington Post dubbed him "…
January 4, 2008
Did you know that while an Illinois Senator that Barack Obama successfully passed major bills on crime, ethics, campaign finance reform, and low wage work? And that these accomplishments reveal his experience and ability in working across party lines to craft solutions to complex problems?
The…
January 4, 2008
At the History News Network, my American University colleague Lenny Steinhorn teams up with his brother Charles, a professor of Mathematics at Vassar College, to point out the misleading nature of the framing of evolution in presidential coverage. As they argue, political reporters overwhelmingly…
January 4, 2008
In an editorial at this week's Science, editor Donald Kennedy raises concerns that religion has come to dominate the presidential race and argues that instead science should have an equal if not more prominent place on the election agenda. This week's issue of Science features statements on science…
January 3, 2008
Ten months ago the patterns of attacks among some of the leading personalities at Fox News were already emerging.
With Barack Obama's win tonight in Iowa, expect the character attacks, innuendo, race codes, and islamo-phobia to pick up among various Fox News personalities. More than 10 months ago…
January 3, 2008
As I have traveled across the country over the past year giving talks on new directions in science communication, one of my recommendations to science institutions and organizations has been to launch blogs and podcasts as important strategic communication tools for engaging with audiences and…
January 3, 2008
Here we go again...another book telling us why religious belief is illogical. Shocker!
But this time it's from one of my favorite writers, John Allen Paulos. It will be interesting to see how Paulos frames his publicity campaign and what lessons might be learned from the Dawkins case. Neil…
January 3, 2008
Mike Huckabee plays guitar and jokes about his weight on The Tonight Show.
Last night on Jay Leno, Mike Huckabee put in the best late night performance in presidential history, potentially catapulting himself to a win in Iowa tonight and gaining enough momentum to march on to victory in South…
January 2, 2008
Back in 2005 when I spent a month as a visiting scholar at Dresden Technical University in Germany, I was stunned to be told by several graduate students that in the rural areas of Saxony a quarter of voters supported so-called neo-nazi political parties and organizations. Now one of my favorite…
January 2, 2008
Advisers worry that Benedict is not as media savvy as John Paul.
Religion like science does not speak for itself, it needs to be carefully communicated with the media and specific audiences in mind. According to Reuters, Italian film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli is offering his services to…
January 2, 2008
Starting in the 1970s, historians, sociologists, and anthropologists began to apply their methods and theories to understanding the processes and assumptions that shape the production of scientific knowledge and technology.
These scholars argued that science does not stand apart from society as a…
January 1, 2008
If anyone knows their way around airports, it's Frank Luntz. The language maestro estimates he logs 300,000 miles a year and stays in 100 hotels as he jets around the world consulting with corporate clients and political conservatives. At Business Week, he offers readers his tips on surviving…
December 31, 2007
Excerpt from coal and utility advertisement run in Kansas
Back in November, by framing their advertising appeals in terms of economic competitiveness and patriotism, a coal company and utility effectively promoted it attacks on the governor of Kansas. Their claim, conveyed powerfully in ads as…
December 31, 2007
At Time magazine, a focus on who will break out of the pack?!
As the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary approaches, it's all horse race all the time in the news media with an almost exclusive focus on "insider" coverage of campaign strategy and a fascination with who's ahead and who's behind in…
December 21, 2007
A X-Mas Goracle
In an editorial in the latest issue of the journal Climatic Change, Simon Donner argues that scientists need to join with religious leaders in communicating the urgency of climate change. Donner is an assistant professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia. His…
December 20, 2007
In the Sunday NY Times Book Review, the conservative satirist PJ O'Rourke reviews Taylor Clark's Starbucked, an investigative and sociological look at the rise of America's most prominent coffee chain.
For Clark (a fellow Dartmouth grad) and contributor to an Oregon alternative weekly, a review at…
December 19, 2007
Pew has released its annual analysis of the top 20 most followed news stories of the year by the public. Pew pairs the survey data with a summary of their weekly news agenda tracking. For regular readers of this blog, you should not be surprised that climate change fails to crack the top 20 most…
December 9, 2007
Dear readers,
I have spent the weekend battling a major case of the flu and unfortunately tomorrow's Framing Science talk at Princeton University has been postponed. I am hoping it can be rescheduled for the spring and will let everyone know a date when available.
December 9, 2007
Artist rendition of nanobot assisting in reproduction.
As I highlighted last week, in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology my colleague Dietram Scheufele is the lead author on a survey analysis that finds that experts are more concerned about the health and environmental risks of nanotech…
December 5, 2007
For readers on campus or in the area, on Monday I will be giving a lecture hosted by the Program in Science, Technology, & Environmental Policy (STEP) at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The talk is scheduled for 1145am to 1pm and will be in…
December 3, 2007
On January 4, the National Academies will release its revised and updated report on Science, Evolution, & Creationism. After the news conference that day, the booklet and brochure will be available for purchase or for free electronic download here. A description is below:
Science, Evolution,…
November 27, 2007
This fall in the sophomore-level course I teach on "Communication and Society," we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter the nature of community, civic engagement, and social relationships.
For college students who grew up online,…
November 27, 2007
This fall in the sophomore-level course I teach on "Communication and Society," we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter the nature of community, civic engagement, and social relationships.
For college students who grew up online,…
November 26, 2007
You can debate the wisdom of spending more than $100 million a year on your athletics program or whether you want someone like Jim Tressel to be the national face of your university. Yet this time of year, love it or hate it, college football reigns supreme in the minds of most students and…
November 25, 2007
My colleague Dietram Scheufele is lead author on a study in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology. In their survey work, Scheufele et al. find that experts are more concerned about the health and environmental risks of nanotech than the public at large. This gulf in perceptions is despite a…
November 21, 2007
Conservatives are promoting Bush as the biomedical Atticus Finch. Shown here posing with a "snowflake" baby, adopted and born from left over in vitro clinic embryos.
Some collected thoughts on what the stem cell discovery means for the framing of the debate, trends in news coverage and public…
November 20, 2007
James Thomson w/ Ian Wilmut (seated)
What happens politically when the two scientists most widely associated with therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell research appear to abandon cloning and embryo extraction for a procedure that involves non-controversial sources of pluripotent cells? It…