Matthew Nisbet
Professor of Communication at Northeastern University.
nisbetmc
Posts by this author
February 6, 2007
What accounts for the striking partisan differences in public perceptions of global warming? As I've detailed (here and here), it's a combined result of strong opinion-cues from party leaders and the ideological safe zones created by Fox News, political talk radio, the WSJ, conservative…
February 6, 2007
With political leaders like Senator James Inhofe and ideological safe zones like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, is it any wonder that only 23% of college-educated Republicans accept that human activities have contributed to global warming, or that among Republicans the issue…
February 5, 2007
Friday's IPCC report represents history's most definitive statement of scientific consensus on climate change, yet despite the best efforts of scientists, advocates, and several media organizations to magnify wider attention to the moment, the report still only scored a modest hit on the overall…
February 1, 2007
GRAPH: MAJOR NEWSPAPER ATENTION TO "BLOOD" OR "CONFLICT" DIAMONDS
All eyes in the science advocacy community will be on Paris tomorrow, as the policymakers' summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is released. Though the most important scientific document on global warming…
January 31, 2007
Tuesday was "open mike" day at Senator Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works committee, reports the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin. Senate Dems including Barak Obama took stage to hammer home the overwhelming consensus that climate change is real, and that major policy action, notably…
January 30, 2007
Over the weekend I spotlighted a Washington Post article on the Association of American Publishers' hiring of the "PR Pit Bull" to frame their attacks on free access to federally-financed research articles. The Post article noted the perception problems caused by consulting with Eric Dezenhall,…
January 30, 2007
Scientists and environmental advocates will watch with excited anticipation on Friday as the policymakers' summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is released in Paris, France. The IPCC reports are designed to be the most important events in climate science and policy, gathering…
January 29, 2007
Throughout January, PBS has been test piloting three science programs on channels across the country and via streaming video online at their Web site. According to PBS mag Current, one pilot is a spin-off of Wired magazine, another a "Science Investigators" version of PBS' popular "History…
January 28, 2007
Brace yourself for the 2008 You-Tube election. When it comes to presidential campaigns, many Americans make up their minds about candidates not based on the issues, but rather based on "low information" signals about the candidate's personal narrative and character. For example, in 2004, the…
January 27, 2007
Things just went from bad to terrible for the image of the Association of American Publishers. Rick Weiss in today's WPost spotlights the Association's hiring of "PR Pit Bull" Eric Dezenhall to help in their fight against patient advocates and members of Congress who are trying to require free…
January 27, 2007
As disappointing as this week's State of the Union address might have been to many climate change advocates, in today's Washington Post, Peter Baker and Steven Mufson have a revealing page one account backgrounding the evolution of Bush's thinking on the issue.
According to the article, in the…
January 26, 2007
Survey trends show that atheists are America's least trusted minority, ranking below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups. Moreover, Pew studies indicate that Americans are very comfortable with religion interceding in public life, and with the expression of religious faith on…
January 26, 2007
The BBC in collaboration with the British think tank Demos has launched a "national series of conversations about new technologies, the future and society." Brits are encouraged to participate in informal small group discussions organized independently, facilitated public events at science…
January 25, 2007
From high culture to pop culture, art can serve as a rallying point for social groups and activists who want to publicize their reservations about areas of science and technology. Consider Patricia Piccinini's powerful "We Are Family" exhibit that has shown in Europe and Australia. Her work…
January 24, 2007
I've noted in recent presentations and posts the strong role of partisanship in how Americans view the science and relative urgency of global warming. Yet according to a Pew survey released this week, the divide runs deeper and more complex.
Pew reports striking educational differences in…
January 23, 2007
At the Washington Post today , Juliet Eilperin and Michael Grunwald report on the diverging priorities of House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic chairmen John Dingell and Henry Waxman, conflicts that might stall or even derail meaningful legislation on climate change. Last week, in a new…
January 22, 2007
Across most nationally representative surveys, if you measure Evangelical christians as those respondents who identify themselves as "evangelical" and who also, when given a multiple choice question, answer that the "bible is the literal word of God," you usually find that about 30% to 35% of adult…
January 21, 2007
Something's rotten in Denmark. Conservatives once again have sprung a media trap on Al Gore, but this time overseas. At the Wall Street Journal , "skeptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg and Danish journalist Flemming Rose complain that Gore, while touring Denmark, backed out of a scheduled…
January 20, 2007
Want to keep up with the details of stem cell funding and politics in California? The California Stem Cell Report is the place for you. And while you are there, check out this reaction to my recent Skeptical Inquirer Online column on political communication strategy in the Congressional debate.
January 20, 2007
Later this weekend, I will have much more to say about this op-ed by Yuval Levin appearing in Friday's NY Times, so check back. The piece is a leading example of how stem cell opponents have honed a language in talking about stem cell research that imbues a technical topic with emotion, drama, and…
January 20, 2007
Science issues are lining up to be a big part of the political jockeying by the 2008 presidential hopefuls. Plans are in the works to make Framing Science the-go-to-site for news and insight tracking the candidates' strategies and positions. So stay tuned...but today, an update on the GOP side.…
January 19, 2007
While many schools pour hundreds of millions of dollars into athletics, more signs today that among the elite universities, stem cell research is at the center of competition. As I wrote last week, it's going to be difficult for Red State schools across the country to keep up in the national…
January 18, 2007
In the days before the House vote to fund embryonic stem cell research, the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times ran page one stories heralding a Nature Biotech study that indicated stem cells extracted from amniotic fluid might have "near pluripotent" like properties. Yet, despite the heavy…
January 17, 2007
From the news wires:
Calling concerns about building George W. Bush's presidential library there unfounded, Southern Methodist University's president told faculty Wednesday the project would increase the school's visibility nationwide...."Over time, the political components of the library complex…
January 17, 2007
Many readers will want to check out the debate going on over at Belief.net between best-selling "End of Faith" author Sam Harris and "Conservative Soul" author/Time magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan. I have to admit, Sullivan does a noble job of defending his views, not to mention, doing it with…
January 17, 2007
Tony Snow denies reports from sources close to UK prime minister Tony Blair that Bush will use next week's State of the Union address to announce plans for the US to adopt a "Kyoto-like" mandatory cap on emissions, part of the administration's move towards "more radical measures" on climate change…
January 17, 2007
The latest analysis of the week's top news agenda stories from the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that despite the Dems best efforts to draw media and public attention to their roster of House bills, most notably stem cell research, coverage of the president's Iraq policy and national…
January 17, 2007
Today I am launching a new regular feature where I will spotlight DC events of interest for readers of Framing Science who live, work, and play here in the Beltway.
While Framing Science covers mostly national and international issues, with the site's readership spanning the US, Europe, Asia, and…
January 16, 2007
University classes for the spring semester are in full swing, and several courses have integrated blogs and the evaluation of such into their class content. As previously posted, UNC's English 12 course has paid a visit here to Framing Science, and now UVA's Dept. of Politics seminar on Political…
January 16, 2007
A warm welcome to students from UNC's English 12 course.
Please have fun navigating and evaluating my blog. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and feedback in the comments section of this post. Also of interest, from the fall semester, see this class blog debate" involving the students…