… There is a striking degree of overlap between the words of right-wing media personalities and the language used by the Texas man who confessed to killing 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso this month. In a 2,300-word screed posted on the website 8chan, the killer wrote that […] Read more »
Epstein Suicide Conspiracies Show How Our Information System Is Poisoned
Even on an internet bursting at the seams with conspiracy theories and hyperpartisanship, Saturday marked a new chapter in our post-truth, “choose your own reality” crisis story. It began early Saturday morning, when news broke that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein had apparently hanged himself in a Manhattan jail. … Mr. […] Read more »
Here’s how The Washington Post’s new computational journalism lab will tackle 2020
Hold onto your robots: The future of journalism is exceedingly computational. (At least part of it.) And the 2020 U.S. election is a great place to start. … The engineering-heavy Washington Post newsroom has used bots, automation, and large-scale data in its reporting before, perhaps notably with its Heliograf tool […] Read more »
Sometimes Trump trashes polls. Sometimes he hypes them. Sometimes they’re the same poll.
In President Trump’s politics, there are no permanent polling allies, just permanent polling interests. There is no consistent metric by which he gauges his presidency other than cherry-picking metrics in which his presidency is seen in a favorable light. … He’s been a bit cranky with Fox of late, given […] Read more »
The Washington Post establishes a computational political journalism R&D lab
The Washington Post’s newly launched elections engineering team will establish a computational political journalism R&D lab in the newsroom this fall. Under the leadership of Jeremy Bowers, the team will collaborate with Nick Diakopoulos, an assistant professor in communication studies and computer science at Northwestern University, to experiment with algorithmic […] Read more »
How Distrust in the Media Creates a Political Knowledge Gap Between Religious and Secular Americans
Religion has long been examined for its effects on political engagement, with decidedly mixed results. While many writers—going back to Alexis de Tocqueville—argue that religion promotes civic engagement, others assert that in many circumstances, religion may lead to political disengagement, distrust, and cynicism. Of the many ways that religion can […] Read more »