In March 2019, two projects at Harvard Kennedy School—the Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project at the Belfer Center and the Platform Accountability Project at the Shorenstein Center—hosted a workshop for Congressional staff to identify and discuss policy approaches to the dilemmas of big tech platforms.
Big Tech and Democracy: The Critical Role of Congress Read More »
By Roderick P. Hart, Fall 2018 Shorenstein Fellow and Shivers Chair in Communication and Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin This essay is forthcoming as part of a special symposium on Campaign 2016 to be published in the Fall edition of Presidential Studies Quarterly. Download a PDF copy of this paper here. Introduction It
Assessing Campaign Quality: Was the 2016 Presidential Campaign a Travesty? Read More »
Gibbs is the former editor in chief of Time and former editorial director of the Time Inc. News Group. “Nancy Gibbs is an extremely thoughtful and respected voice about the evolving role of the media in politics and society,” said Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf.
Nancy Gibbs Appointed Faculty Director of the Shorenstein Center Read More »
Download the PDF of this paper here. Introduction The major digital platform companies present a large, complicated array of benefits and problems for the country and the world. The companies increasingly have the attention of both average citizens and senior-most public officials as befit entities that have achieved great—perhaps even paramount—influence in political, social, and
Platform Accountability: An Interim Measure Read More »
Garrett Graff is a journalist, historian, director of the Aspen Institute’s Cybersecurity and Technology Program, and author of The Threat Matrix, the definitive account of Robert Mueller’s time as head of the FBI. In this episode of the Shorenstein Center’s podcast, he talks about the Mueller Investigation: what we know, what we still don’t know,
Garrett Graff: Decoding the Mueller Investigation Read More »
With trust in federal government and institutions at historic lows, local governments, including cities and counties, must play a critical role in the 2020 Census. If we don’t get the census right, there is so much we are at risk of getting wrong – the implications of which will last for years.
Can Cities Save the Census? A Local Framework for Our Nation’s First Digital Count Read More »
James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor for the New York Times talked about the role of opinion writing in today’s news ecosystem with former TIME Magazine Editor and Shorenstein Center faculty member Nancy Gibbs. Thanks to the Forum Network at WGBH for recording this talk.
What’s the Point of Publishing Opinion, Anyway? Read More »
The 2020 U.S. Census will, for the first time since 1950, ask about residents’ citizenship status. The effect of doing so on census completion across different racial/ethnic groups is, however, unknown. Leveraging a survey experiment, we are the first to assess the causal effect of this question change.
Estimating the Effect of Asking About Citizenship on the U.S. Census Read More »
On March 12th, just before the 2019 Goldsmith Awards ceremony, representatives of the 7 reporting teams who were finalists for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting sat down with Nicco Mele, Shorenstein Center Director, for a candid conversation about their prize-nominated reporting, the struggles of being an investigative journalist reporting on some of the most
The Goldsmith Awards: Finalists Panel Read More »
J. David McShane and Andrew Chavez of the Dallas Morning News won the prize for their story “Pain and Profit,” on problems with medicaid patients receiving adequate care in Texas.
Dallas Morning News Wins the 2019 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting Read More »
Internet access is coming to the other half of the planet through rapid expansion of broadband technologies. Media organizations that recognize the speed and reach of this expansion will enjoy major new and positive opportunities. In this paper, Shorenstein Fellow Jim Cashel reviews the expanding network of broadband access, and makes recommendations for media companies adapting to this new global reality.
Broadband Everywhere Read More »
The Shorenstein Center’s podcast is dedicated this week to a series of interviews with the finalists for the 2019 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism. Shorenstein Center Special Projects Director Heidi Legg, an accomplished journalist herself, spoke with each of the reporting teams to learn how they found, investigated, and reported their stories, and about the
Behind the Reporting: The Goldsmith Award Finalists Read More »
Justin Tinsley is a culture and sports writer for The Undefeated, a sports and pop culture website owned and operated by ESPN. He spoke at the Shorenstein Center on February 12, 2019. He and Center Director Nicco Mele had a wide-ranging conversation about covering sports and pop culture through the lens of celebrity activism. Watch the
Social Activism Through Pop Culture: Justin Tinsley Read More »
Adam Berinsky is the Mitsui Professor of Political Science at MIT and serves as the director of the MIT Political Experiments Research Lab (PERL). He is also a Faculty Affiliate at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). Berinsky received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 2000. He is the author of
Adam Berinsky: Political Misinformation in the Modern Day Read More »
The growing crisis in U.S. local news is making it increasingly urgent that local television outlets both improve the quality of news produced and chart a path toward a sustainable future in which new audiences are recruited. In this research report, John Wihbey and Mike Beaudet show how local broadcasters might rethink story segments to create a more engaging news product for younger audiences, particularly with regard to hard news stories.
Reinventing Local TV News Read More »
Shorenstein Center Announces Seven Finalists for 2019 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting; Marty Baron to Receive Career Award Finalists include: Alabama Media Group; The Dallas Morning News; The Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism with FRONTLINE; The Philadelphia Inquirer; ProPublica; The South Bend Tribune with ProPublica; and The Wall Street
2019 Goldsmith Prize Finalists Read More »
After nearly a decade of decrying email as a rusty old relic of the early internet days, journalists and media outlets are coming to rely more and more on the email newsletter as the backbone of their audience engagement and growth strategies. Over the last year, the Single Subject News Project, part of the News Business Models team at the Shorenstein Center, has been looking at how small nonprofit newsrooms are using email, and specifically email newsletters.
Email for Newsrooms: A Research Summary Read More »
Nabiha Syed, Vice President and Associate General Counsel at BuzzFeed, gave the 11th Annual Richard S. Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, November 14, 2018. Ms. Syed, a well respected lawyer who has spent her career specializing in free speech law, laid
Nabiha Syed: 2018 Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press Read More »
CAMBRIDGE, MA—The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, based at Harvard Kennedy School, is pleased to announce its Spring 2019 class of fellows. “This group of journalists, media executives, and government officials brings an incredible depth of intellectual and professional experience to the Shorenstein Center at a time when the future of journalism
Shorenstein Center Announces Spring 2019 Fellows Read More »
It felt like every week of 2018 turned up another major news story that directly related to our work at the intersection of media, politics, and public policy. In the midst of it all, the team at the Shorenstein Center put out some incredible research on information disorder, platform accountability, business models for news, and
A Year in Review at the Shorenstein Center Read More »
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center dedicated to exploring and illuminating the intersection of press, politics and public policy in theory and practice. The Center strives to bridge the gap between journalists and scholars, and between them and the public.
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