When former South African President Nelson Mandela died last month, he was celebrated around the world, lauded in this country by politicians who range as far apart on the ideological spectrum as President Obama and Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. It was easy to forget how controversial a figure Mandela […] Read more »
Americans hopeful for a better 2014 as they recall important, memorable moments of 2013
Large number of Americans see 2013 as anything but a banner year and aren’t reluctant to wave goodbye on New Year’s Eve, a new AP-Times Square poll says, reflecting anxiety stretching from the corridors of power in Washington to corporate boardrooms, statehouses, and city and town halls. Although the poll […] Read more »
Stories versus evidence on Obama’s fate
Journalists rightly seek to tell compelling stories, which can bring abstract or dry topics to life, but the need to create a compelling narrative can be dangerous in politics. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, the focus on storytelling over analytical precision pulls the media toward overstated claims, false binary […] Read more »
Canada: Pollster worried shoddy surveys will lead to polling ban during elections
A spate of spectacularly inaccurate polls in several provincial elections and Monday’s federal by-elections has one of Canada’s leading pollsters worried that the day is fast approaching when public opinion surveys will be banned during campaigns. John Wright, senior vice-president of Ipsos Global Public Affairs, said in his view shoddy […] Read more »
The Myth of the ‘War of the Worlds’ Panic
Wednesday marks the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles’ electrifying War of the Worlds broadcast, in which the Mercury Theatre on the Air enacted a Martian invasion of Earth. … The panic inspired by Welles made War of the Worlds perhaps the most notorious event in American broadcast history. … There’s […] Read more »
How Americans Get TV News at Home
Even at a time of fragmenting media use, television remains the dominant way that Americans get news at home, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Nielsen data. And while the largest audiences tune into local and network broadcast news, it is national cable news that commands the […] Read more »