Journal/Book Watch
nisbetmc | January 19, 2008Scholars have long warned about the increasing sound bite nature of our media and political system, but overlooked is the visual nature of this trend. A new study in the Journal of Communication is the first to systematically track and contextualize this troubling tendency of the American public sphere:
Taking Television Seriously: A Sound and Image Bite Analysis of Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1992-2004
This study updates and builds on Hallin's landmark investigation of sound-bite news by documenting the prevalence of candidate image bites, where candidates are shown but not heard (as…
nisbetmc | January 2, 2008Back 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 academic outlets, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, features in its latest issue two essays debating the roots of public support for radical right parties in Europe. For those logging on from an academic or institutional gateway with a subscription, the two essays are well worth…
nisbetmc | December 20, 2007In 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 the NY Times is the much hoped for catalyst to gain attention and acclaim for his first book. Unfortunately, O'Rourke has other ideas. In the hands of the skilled satirist, the review itself emerges as much better than the book and O'Rourke lets you know it.
Back in June, I wrote about the…
nisbetmc | July 27, 2007Oxford University Press has published a new edited volume featuring research on public opinion and media coverage of the plant biotech debate in the US, Europe, Africa, India,and Brazil. The volume is edited by Dominique Brossard and James Shanahan, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University respectively, along with Clint Nesbitt, a scientist at USDA.
Below is a table of contents. I contributed the chapter on "Where Do Science Debates Come From?," co-authored with Mike Huge, a graduate student I worked with at Ohio State.
Table of Contents
-Perspectives on…
nisbetmc | June 28, 2006A pre-publication release of a study I did with Kirby Goidel of LSU is now available at the website of the journal POLITICAL BEHAVIOR. Analyzing national survey data collected in 2003, the study finds that the most consistent predictor of citizen activism in the stem cell debate (measured as donating money, contacting officials, writing letters to the editor etc) is church-based mobilization, including the distribution of materials at church, and requests to participate from church leaders. Below is the abstract and article information. Readers at universities should be able to download…