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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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At The Three Cultures Summit on Climate Change, What Scientists Want to Learn From Social Scientists
I’m spending the weekend in Oregon at an outpost on the edge of the Columbia River Valley. I’m in town for a unique three cultures summit on climate change, a […]
I’m blogging from Chicago’s O’Hare airport, on my way to Portland to participate in a unique summit bringing together philosophers, scientists, social scientists, poets, filmmakers, and artists to consider new […]
At ClimateWire, one of the new innovative models for science journalism, Christa Marshall has a great feature on how language will shape the pending political battle over cap and trade […]
It’s out today, U2’s latest album, rock like only they can do it. Check it out from the recent Brit Awards.
Over the past decade, best-selling books such as Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point have told compelling stories of how marketers and political consultants use “influentials,” “mavens,” “connectors,” and “navigators” to […]
In the U.S., there is often the false assumption that Europeans are somehow more engaged and supportive of science than Americans. Yet, as I discuss in severalstudies and as I […]
Last night in his State of the Union address, Obama asked Congress to send him a bill that caps carbon emissions, with the president framing the matter primarily in the […]
Back in January, Desmog blog noted what they dubbed a “troubling” trend online, plotting a rise in mentions of “global warming + hoax.” The graph was construed as evidence of […]
Shankar Vendantam’s story headlined “Climate Fears Are Driving ‘Ecomigration’ Across the Globe” runs on the front page at the Washington Post today. It’s not often that climate change is a […]
Not surprisingly, Carl Safina’s Feb. 10 essay at the NY Times calling for an end to Darwin worship generated a fair amount of criticism.Safina’s suggestion to frame information in terms […]
A new study at the journal Risk Analysis examines the factors shaping public perceptions of nuclear energy and provides important clues about how to effectively mobilize public support for expanded […]
Just how important is public communication? Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren believes that scientists should devote 10% of their time to talking to the public about matters of science and […]
There’s a must read Shorenstein Center white paper out by Time magazine contributor Eric Pooley, who spent Fall 2008 at Harvard researching how the news media covered the run up […]
Sometimes I just don’t get it. Whether it is climate change, evolution, or vaccination, the more literal minded among science bloggers and pundits typically blame science journalists for breakdowns in […]
The Obama administration had a rough start to its communication strategy on the stimulus plan, going from no message to a catastrophe frame, only at the last minute shifting to […]
For more than a decade, Rick Weiss covered science (and its politics) for the Washington Post. When he left the paper last year, the news organization lost one of the […]
I’m back in the office after a great event last night at the American Museum of Natural History. Close to 100 attendees came out to the magnificent venue for a […]
In an essay today at the NY Times, Carl Safina pinpoints one of the lingering challenges in communicating about evolution: what he calls the “cult of Darwin.” If we would […]
For readers in the New York area, I will be on a panel tonight at the American Museum of Natural History, focusing on climate change and the news media. The […]
As I wrote last month, in the Year of Darwin, the loudest voice associated with science threatens to be Richard Dawkins and other New Atheist pundits who will argue their […]