Energy. Climate change. The food crisis. These are pressing and complex problems that span science, economics, politics, and culture. Yet when it comes to news coverage of these issues, attention […]
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Think that America’s energy problems and high gas prices aren’t changing perceptions among independents, even among liberals? Think again. According to a new Pew survey, as many liberals (45%) as […]
John McCain, in an interview with the NY Times, admitted that he does not know how to use the Web or even email. McCain, who will turn 73 in August, […]
Myers with Richard Dawkins: Does his atheist punditry damage the scienceblogs.com brand?Call me agnostic on the controversy that has erupted over the Catholic wafer incident in Florida. On the one […]
My latest “Science and the Media” column at Skeptical Inquirer Online is now up. In the column I review the likely audience impact of Expelled and focus on the use […]
In The Happening, “Marky” Mark Wahlberg plays a science teacher who tells his students that evolution is just a theory.Over at IO9, an influential science fiction and science blog, there’s […]
Satire at its best, decoding the label “elitist” as applied to Barack Obama. As Colbert puts it: “Let’s face it, Obama is not an average Joe like me and David […]
Next week, I will be teaming up with Chris Mooney at Cal Tech for an evening lecture followed by a day long science communication seminar for the university’s graduate students […]
The box-office troubles of docs such as “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” is in contrast to Expelled’s impact.The LA Times runs a story this week on the downturn in box office fortunes […]
Here are the details on the talk I am giving with Chris Mooney tonight at Cal Tech. Also online are the syllabus and readings for the science communication workshop we […]
On TV, Neil deGrasse Tyson uses narrative to dramatize the importance of basic research.Last week in San Diego, I participated on a panel at the BIO 2008 meetings that focused […]
I’m back in DC after a week long tour of southern California. On Monday night, an audience of close to 100 scientists, students, and staff turned out at Cal Tech […]
A Gallup survey out this week reveals a wide partisan gap in perceptions of evolution. Specifically, 60% of Republicans say humans were created in their present form by God 10,000 […]
As I’ve argued before, conservatives often have the advantage in elections and policy battles because of their tendency to enforce greater message discipline and coordination. The latest example is James […]
At Knight Science Journalism Tracker, Charlie Petit has a pretty comprehensive round-up and commentary on news coverage of this week’s (failed) climate change legislation.
So how did Barack Obama beat improbable odds to capture the Democratic nomination? A team of reporters at the Washington Post has the best account I’ve seen on Obama’s ingenious […]
If the author is skeptical of mainstream science, is there a conservative think tank behind them?A new study by a team of political scientists and sociologists at the journal Environmental […]
A recent report for the Gallup survey organization by Oklahoma State sociologist Riley Dunlap backs up what I have been arguing at this blog and in various articles regarding the […]
The National Journal has released its annual survey of Congressional members on their views of climate science. When asked: “Do you think it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that […]
As I wrote last week, in John McCain’s recent television ad focusing on global warming, he frames his position as a pragmatic “middle way” approach between the two extremes of […]
When Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006, Gallup polling showed that less than a majority of Americans had a favorable view of Al Gore. Yet just following his Nobel Prize […]
An artist’s take on the “scary wonder” of nanotechnology. The asbestos of tomorrow? As we wrote in our article last year at The Scientist, that’s not the type of frame […]
Released around the time of Expelled’s premiere, this YouTube clip produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science features Francis Collins, CEO Alan Leshner, and others discussing the […]
Note: Trends reflect the number of combined articles appearing annually in the New York Times and the Washington Post containing in the headline or lead paragraph the key words for […]
A round up of recent news coverage where I have provided analysis…1. USA Today ran this profile of actor Ed Begley, focusing on his commitment to environmental issues and a […]
Do voters under the age of 30 always trend more liberal and more likely to vote Democrat? Contrary to conventional wisdom, history and data say “No.”Political preferences are a product […]
This week’s On the MediaspotlightsRushmore Drive, the new search engine marketed to African Americans (audio above). As the program describes, the search engine uses a unique algorithm to find those […]
Evidence for the influence of an effective media strategy, from a just released Pew survey: Following his first visit to the United States as spiritual leader of the world’s Catholics, […]
Bill McKibben’s latest grassroots project is the launch of www.350.org, a Web portal and blog designed to focus world attention on cutting the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to […]
Can a radio talk show host motivate Republicans to turn out in a Democratic primary and vote strategically for a candidate? Past research suggests that political talk radio can have […]