Our weekly roundup of news found at the intersection of media, politics, policy and technology, from the Shorenstein Center and from around the web.
This Week at the Shorenstein Center
Pre-Primary News Coverage of the 2016 Presidential Race: Trump’s Rise, Sanders’ Emergence, Clinton’s Struggle. New research finds that during 2015, major news outlets covered Donald Trump in a way that was unusual given his low initial polling numbers—a high volume of media coverage preceded Trump’s rise in the polls. Meanwhile, the Democratic race received less than half the coverage of the Republican race. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was largely ignored in the early months but, as it began to get coverage, it was overwhelmingly positive in tone, while Hillary Clinton had the most negative coverage of any candidate. Read the report.
Orlando Gay Nightclub Shooting: Research and Resources for Journalists, from Journalist’s Resource.
News from Our Fellows
The Narrative of Orlando: An American Fatwa? Ted Gup, fall 2003 fellow and author, argues that media coverage of the Orlando massacre has too often overlooked homegrown “zealotry and homophobia.”
How Donald Trump Hijacked the Authenticity of the Web. David Weinberger, spring 2015 fellow and senior researcher at the Berkman Center, writes that although Trump’s “credibility is zero, by attacking political correctness he projects a true voice to his internet followers.”
Jimmy Carter Calls for Return to Publicly Financed Elections. Marilyn Thompson, spring 2016 fellow and national politics editor on special assignment for The Washington Post, writes about a recent event where President Carter said he would like to see “public funds used for all elections — Congress, U.S. Senate, governor and president.” Thompson recently authored a Shorenstein Center paper on the feasibility of public election funding, “The Dream is Dead: Can Taxpayer Money Save Presidential Campaigns?”
How a Reporter Forged Her Own Path Covering Healthcare in South Carolina. Trudy Lieberman, spring 2001 fellow and press critic for Columbia Journalism Review, writes about how one reporter found Medicaid coverage to be a “treasure trove of stories.”
From around the Web
State of the News Media 2016, from Pew Research Center.
Donald Trump Takes a Page from the Autocrat’s Media Playbook, from The Huffington Post.
How to Interview Donald Trump, from “On the Media.”
Can “Public Journalism” Reform Campaign Coverage? From Poynter.
7 Lessons from BuzzFeed’s “FOIA-Friendly Newsroom,” from Poynter.
Journalism in the Age of Data: Q&A with Dhrumil Mehta of FiveThirtyEight, from Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center.
The Financial Times Guide to Data Visualization, from Digiday.
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