Matthew Nisbet
Professor of Communication at Northeastern University.
nisbetmc
Posts by this author
November 20, 2007
At the Columbia Journalism Review, managing editor Brent Cunningham argues for a new journalistic beat that covers the obscuring uses of language and messaging in politics. The essay is part of a special issue devoted to "Orwell in '08."
The benefits of a "rhetoric and framing" beat would be…
November 17, 2007
Neil deGrasse Tyson understands the central role of framing in communication and it's a major reason that Tyson is perhaps the most effective science popularizer of his generation. In a fascinating interview on this week's Point of Inquiry, here's how Tyson describes his philosophy and approach to…
November 13, 2007
Pew has posted advertising revenue analysis for major magazines over the past year. Not surprisingly, the "big three" news magazines continue to suffer, other mags such as The New Yorker hold steady, while the celebrity magazines continue to thrive. As Pew reports:
It's been a rough year for the…
November 13, 2007
Pundits and journalists continue to speculate about whether or not conservative Republicans will get strongly behind a Rudy Giuliani presidential run. As it stands right now, according to a recent Gallup survey, for the great majority of Republicans, the heuristics of likability, party loyalty,…
November 10, 2007
The studios of Point of Inquiry
For those in the DC area, Wednesday evening I will be speaking at the one year anniversary of the Center for Inquiry's Public Policy office [Details Below]. Also making remarks will be DJ Grothe, host of the popular Point of Inquiry podcast series. Recently…
November 9, 2007
Each Monday evening in November, AAAS is sponsoring a series of panel discussions on major issues in science and technology policy. The panels are hosted by NPR reporters Joe Palca and Richard Harris. See details below:
AAAS Invites You to a New Discussion Series
Science & Society: Grand…
November 7, 2007
"Sandwalk" blogger Larry Moran
If the blog debate that ensued after publication of our article at Science showed anything, it was just how widely misunderstood the concept of framing might be. Not surprisingly, many bloggers offer strong opinions about framing and its relationship to science…
November 3, 2007
[Image from Salon.com feature on panelist Barbara J. King]
Full details are now available for the previously announced panel on Communicating Science in a Religious America at February's AAAS meetings in Boston.
180-Minute Symposium
Communicating Science in a Religious America
Sunday, Feb 17,…
November 1, 2007
As I have detailed in past studies and as we write in the cover article at The Scientist, the dominant frame that appears when science turns political is the "strategy" frame. This is a journalist driven package that ignores the substance of the scientific issue or debate and instead employs an…
November 1, 2007
Gallup has released its latest tracking data on American views of NASA. As Gallup describes, according to the Sept. 14-16 poll, 56% of Americans rate the job NASA is doing in positive terms, with 16% saying it is doing an "excellent" job and 40% a "good" job. Meanwhile, just 8% say it is doing a…
October 23, 2007
It's going to be a busy 24 hours.
On Wednesday evening I will be at the Center for Inquiry-NYC for the latest in our Speaking Science 2.0 tour. Then I will head back to DC for a Thursday morning press conference where I will be talking about a report that argues for new directions in communicating…
October 23, 2007
The latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (sub, text below) runs an "at a glance" spotlight on our cover article at The Scientist.
A Glance at the October Issue of The Scientist: The Framing of Science
By JASON M. BRESLOW
The way most experts see it, "ignorance is at the root of…
October 22, 2007
David Goldston and I had a great discussion at WAMU-NPR's Kojo Namdi Show today. We were also joined later in the program by Francesca Grifo, Director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. You can listen to the archived audio here.
October 21, 2007
Tomorrow (Monday) at 1pm EST I will be joined by Nature columnist and former House Science committee Chief of Staff David Goldston as a guest on WAMU's Kojo Nmandi Show. The program will focus on the connections between science policy, scientists, and the public. At WAMU's Web site, you can listen…
October 19, 2007
Science magazine runs the following news report on Gore's Nobel prize and his impact on the policy debate and public opinion. The article quotes Steve Schneider, Michael Oppenheimer, Robert Watson, and other key scientists who note the immense importance of Gore's work on climate change over the…
October 17, 2007
In a new regular column over at DesmogBlog, Chris Mooney elaborates on the arguments first offered here. We should applaud Gore, writes Chris, but we also need to draw on data and evidence in order to accurately evaluate his impact and consider what else needs to be done:
However, there's one…
October 17, 2007
It's another busy week on the road giving presentations, trading ideas, and meeting a lot of really smart and dedicated people. Yesterday, via video conference, I spoke as part of a panel at a National Academies' meeting on science and technology advice in state policy decisions. Joining me on the…
October 17, 2007
In the United States, when it comes to public perceptions of Gore's climate message and Nobel award, partisanship is serving as the strongest of perceptual screens, triggered in part by the chorus of conservative media attacking Gore's accomplishments and challenging the science behind his claims…
October 16, 2007
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A break from serious matters for a focus on music...
Last night I strolled down to the 930 Club, one of the top indie rock venues in the country to catch Cat Power. The band delivered as some of the best rock-blues-folk fusion since Janice Joplin.
Next week, however, is the season'…
October 13, 2007
One of the reasons why Al Gore's communication campaign has had limited success in activating the American public on climate change is that only half of adults have a favorable opinion of the former Vice President. Not only do pre-conceived notions about Gore serve as a perceptual screen in…
October 12, 2007
A busy day but a quick analysis of breaking news:
Gore's Inconvenient Truth has been a stunning success in generating news coverage to his preferred "pandora's box" framing of the "climate crisis" and in mobilizing a latent base of concerned citizens. His perspective is likely to only be…
October 9, 2007
The identity politics wrapped up in author Sam Harris' statements at a recent atheist conference here in Washington, DC has sparked a ton of discussion and debate. Paul Kurtz, chair of the Center for Inquiry and Editor of Free Inquiry, has circulated an important response via various email lists.…
October 8, 2007
On Friday, I was in Seattle for our latest stop in the Speaking Science 2.0 tour. We were hosted by the University of Washington's Forum on Science Ethics and Policy (FOSEP), the Dept. of Communication, the Pacific Science Center, and Town Hall Seattle. (I will have a post up later about how FOSEP…
October 4, 2007
That's the headline at the Drudge Report today with a link to this AP story on Hillary Clinton's Sputnik anniversary speech. As a way to attract attention and rally the base, Clinton adopts the tagline from Chris Mooney's Republican War of Science, offering up a frame device that immediately…
October 4, 2007
Pew has released an analysis of trends in partisanship among cohorts of Evangelicals over the past six years. The significant finding is that Evangelicals ages 18-30 increasingly identify as Independents and Democrats, in greater combined proportion than Republican. While maintaining roughly…
October 4, 2007
Tomorrow at the University of Washington I will be speaking to the Department of Communication in the morning and then joined in the evening by Chris Mooney to deliver our Speaking Science 2.0 lecture. In the afternoon, we will also be hosting a discussion with graduate students on the topic of "…
October 2, 2007
The editors at The Scientist have made our October cover story on framing freely available for the month of October. Make sure you check out our 4,000 word feature, the common set of frames that apply across science debates, the sidebar emphasizing eight key recommendations for moving forward,…
October 1, 2007
Back in the spring, the Nisbet/Mooney tour visited the New York Academy of Sciences (Audio and Slides). In terms of turn out and post-discussion, it was one of the best events we have done. Now it appears that our ideas have inspired a new outreach effort coordinated by NYAS and area graduate…
September 29, 2007
I'm back in DC after an all too short trip to Minneapolis. Chris Mooney and I flew in to speak at the annual meetings of the Association for Reproductive Health Professionals. Among the gathered physicians, nurses, and health advocates, there was definitely a lot of buzz about the potential to…
September 26, 2007
Appearing as the cover story for the October issue of The Scientist, I've teamed up with my colleague Dietram Scheufele to pen a 4,000 word feature that expands on the Framing Science thesis previously introduced in short articles at Science and the Washington Post.
There's a great deal of context…