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Matthew C. Nisbet
Associate Professor of Communication, Northeastern University
Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. Nisbet studies the role of communication and advocacy in policymaking and public affairs, focusing on debates over over climate change, energy, and sustainability. Among awards and recognition, Nisbet has been a Visiting Shorenstein Fellow on Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, a Health Policy Investigator at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a Google Science Communication Fellow. In 2011, the editors at the journal Nature recommended Nisbet's research as “essential reading for anyone with a passing interest in the climate change debate,” and the New Republic highlighted his work as a “fascinating dissection of the shortcomings of climate activism."
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The White House message machine went into over drive this weekend as President Obama in public remarks emphasized the need for national unity and tolerance of others, especially for Americans […]
Stephen Hawking’s latest book Grand Design sits atop the Amazon best-seller list and has been the subject of gobal news attention and debate. Driving discussion (and sales) is Hawking’s “no […]
In a panel discussion last night following Feisel Abdul Rauf’s appearance on CNN Larry King Live, host Anderson Cooper and new primetime personalities Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer framed Rauf’s […]
Feisel Abdul Rauf returned to the United States last weekend and yesterday began the urgent process of telling his side of the story. As I wrote previously, power in politics […]
The most interesting and important things about science often go uncovered in the news media. Journalists and editors–especially in today’s world of cutbacks–have always tended to define what’s newsworthy in […]
In the wake of the Aug. 23 court decision that halted Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are gearing up to use stem cell research as a wedge […]
Does politics today revolve around the dynamics of cable news? What might be the future of traditional network news and how should we prepare students for careers in journalism, media, […]
Keith Olbermann helped MSNBC craft a model that allowed the network to adhere to one ideological segment of viewers over another, creating the incentive to brand themselves in terms of ideology rather than news.
Where will the funding for widespread open-access publishing come from?
About 20% of journal articles published in the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities are open-access, meaning that only about 1 out of every 5 articles are immediately or eventually […]
Do some Americans have an irrational and prejudicial fear of Islam? Where do views of Muslims stand more generally? That was the focus of the cover story last week at […]
In a now famous skit from Saturday Night Live, William Shatner told a room full of Trekkies to “get a life.” Like Shatner, highbrows tend to dismiss fan culture as […]
Double blind peer-review in science and other fields has been the norm for decades. Now some scholars, as featured at the NY Times this week, are arguing that peer-review needs […]
Perhaps the most effective frame used by opponents of nuclear energy is that it is simply not “cost effective.” Not only is it wasteful, argue opponents, but government subsidies are […]
From Philip K. Dick to Stephen King, the film and TV industry not only adapt the creative narratives of authors but also lean heavily on their devoted fan base to […]
Quality news media inspire constructive debate and diffuse innovations. An example came yesterday as the New York Times spotlighted the trend toward open-review publishing, reinvigorating conversations about the topic across […]
Power in politics turns on being able to simultaneously control attention to an issue while also defining the terms of debate. A golden rule is to define yourself and your […]
In a series of posts over at Scientific American’s blog CrossCheck, John Horgan describes how several recent articles and books have prompted him to re-evaluate his views on nuclear energy. […]
As a follow up to his guest post yesterday on the prospects for independent book stores, I asked Paul D’Angelo, a communication professor at the College of New Jersey, his […]
One of the richest sub-worlds of blogging is the Atheist NetRoots. As I described last week, popular atheist bloggers such as PZ Myers have developed a loyal and engaged following […]