Our weekly roundup of news found at the intersection of media, politics, policy and technology, from the Shorenstein Center and from around the web. Sign up to receive Media and Politics Must Reads in your inbox each week. Also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates.
This Week at the Shorenstein Center
Jelani Cobb on Race, Populism, and Politics. Jelani Cobb, A.M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at the Shorenstein Center and staff writer for The New Yorker, discussed the influence of history on current events, changing demographics in the U.S., the media’s coverage of racial issues, and more. Jelani was also announced as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary this week—congratulations!
Health in the Headlines: Reporting on Health Policy in the Trump Era. A panel discussion with leading health care journalists about the rapidly shifting health policy landscape in Washington, DC. With Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News; Margot Sanger-Katz, The New York Times; and Rachana Pradham, Politico.
Fact-checking the network: The most interesting digital and social media research of early 2018, from Journalist’s Resource, via Nieman Lab.
Data security: Research on privacy in the digital age, from Journalist’s Resource.
Media & Politics Must Reads will return in May. Meanwhile, you can catch up on our latest events through our podcast, available on iTunes, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Stitcher.
News from Faculty and Fellows
Cambridge Analytica’s Abuse Shows Why Diversity In Tech Matters. Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Shorenstein Center faculty affiliate, and Bärí A. Williams write, “Cambridge Analytica provided the means for the Trump campaign not only to activate likely supporters but to influence minorities not to vote at all.”
Trump Onboard for Offshore Wind? Derrick Z. Jackson, fall 2016 fellow, writes that although the Trump administration “has pulled out of global climate change agreements and is rolling back environmental protections at the behest of the fossil fuel industry, [it] nonetheless does not want to miss out on the economic potential of a renewable energy industry that has revived many ailing port cities in northern Europe.”
News Attention in a Mobile Era. Johanna Dunaway, spring 2016 fellow, has published a new study that finds that attention to news on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones is not the same as attention to news on computers.
Q&A with Barbie Zelizer. Barbie Zelizer, spring 2004 fellow, will lead the new Center for Media at Risk, which launches this month at University of Pennsylvania.
Local News
- Report for America Supports Journalism Where Cutbacks Hit Hard, from The New York Times.
- Research: TV news employment surpasses newspapers, from Radio Television Digital News Association.
- Only You Have the Power to Save Your Local News from Corporate Vultures, from Time.
- Facebook struggles to promote ‘meaningful interactions’ for local publishers, data shows, from Columbia Journalism Review.
Social Media and Algorithms
- GOP accuses Facebook of censorship but conservative media flourishes online, from NBC News.
- What Comes After The Social Media Empires, from BuzzFeed News.
- What journalists can do to hold algorithms to account, from Journalism.co.uk.
