Marty Plissner, a longtime political director for CBS News who helped expand the role of television in covering elections, died on Thursday in Washington. He was 87. … As network political coverage became more prevalent and more competitive, it was sometimes criticized for being too focused on the horse-race aspect […] Read more »
The media make us think we’re more polarized than we really are
… What kinds of effects does the media’s reporting of political polarization have on Americans? Are we in a self-reinforcing cycle, in which news coverage emphasizing polarization itself has a polarizing effect? Thanks to the support of Time-sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences, we have conducted numerous surveys of the […] Read more »
Why you shouldn’t blame polarization on partisan news
In casting about for explanations for the unprecedented level of polarization in Congress, many singled out the partisan news media. This is an understandable notion, but unlikely nonetheless. Partisan media, which reach a small slice of the electorate at any rate, emerged well after Congress began to polarize, and mainstream […] Read more »
Supply of news is dwindling amid the digital media transformation
The word is out that we’re embarking on a new golden age of journalism. … It’s exciting, and dangerous. The danger is that these changes won’t usher the old standards and goals of journalism into the future so much as relegate them to the past. … The information ecosystem today is […] Read more »
What Ezra Klein and Nate Silver can learn from Grantland about analytical journalism
… Not only are videos and data more easily accessible in sports than politics, but sports statistics represent the cumulation of directly observed actions, whereas the influences on, say, public opinion are not filmed and measured over time. Nonetheless, it’s worth thinking about how political coverage can go beyond chartblogging […] Read more »
Christie Story Attracts Little Public Interest
The public paid far more attention to last week’s cold snap than to the controversy swirling around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. There also has been little short-term change in opinions about Christie: 60% say their opinion of Christie has not changed in recent days, while 16% now view him […] Read more »