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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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I taped an interview yesterday with PRI/BBC The World discussing the unfortunate use by science advocates of the term “denier” in debates over climate change, evolution, and other issues involving […]
For members of the science policy community, I will be giving a talk tonight at 6pm at AAAS headquarters, titled “Science Communication Reconsidered: Key Issues for 2009 and Beyond.” (1200 […]
This past year, in the School of Communication here at American University, we were lucky to add to our faculty Lauren Feldman, a newly minted PhD from the Annenberg School […]
What else is new in the Obama presidency? Presidents have given weekly radio addresses for decades, but Obama plans to take this vehicle for direct communication digital, offering motivated viewers […]
Photo credit.Readers in DC, New York City, and several other locations may be interested in turning out for talks I will be giving over the coming months. Details on dates, […]
From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The 2008 presidential election has broken so many political barriers that historians may overlook one unusual fact: When Barack Obama takes the oath of […]
With polls looking good for an Obama victory, here’s a clip from an interview I did with Big Think back in July, discussing why Obama has been such a successful […]
Opinion-leaders are a commonly overlooked resource by science organizations and advocates. Public communication initiatives too often ignore the special individuals across communities and social groups that can serve as vital […]
Polls including cell-phones are highlighted in orange.Wondering about the variation across survey organizations in estimating Obama’s national lead? As I have been discussing in my research methods course here at […]
Obama took over the airwaves Wednesday night, hitting most of the important audience groups. According to Nielsen (above), Obama’s 30 minute 8pm infomercial which aired on CBS, FOX, NBC, Univision, […]
In a Policy Forum article published this week at Science, MIT Professor of Management John Sterman reports on an experiment that shows just how self-defeating it is to continue to […]
Following on the heels of Expelled and Obsession, a film warning of radical Islam, there’s more signs that the Right has discovered documentary film as a strategic communication tool to […]
How strong is the partisan divide on perceptions of global warming? The tendency for Republicans to doubt the reality of climate change means that they are even distrustful of John […]
In a two hour special, PBS Frontline tackles what the award winning series calls the most important issue of our time. (Promo above.) The special program airs Tuesday night in […]
The chatter among pundits and journalists this post-debate morning has focused in part on John McCain’s body language and split-screen demeanor. There was a clear aggressiveness and emotion to McCain’s […]
Film education? Consulting scientists on Jurassic Park helped morph the image of dinosaurs in the public’s mind from reptilian to avian, popularized the idea of “Chaos Theory,” and made plausible […]
How difficult has it been for economists to communicate their expertise to policy makers during this financial crisis? The Chronicle of Higher Education has this report: During the days after […]
From the University of Pennsylvania’s FactCheck.org, (listen to the ad and read the full analysis): An Obama-Biden radio ad hammers McCain for being opposed to stem cell research. Not true. […]
Nielsen has released an interesting breakdown and comparison of the audiences for the first presidential debate and the VP debate.According to Nielsen, sixty-one percent of all U.S. households watched at […]
If Bill Maher’s strategy for landing interviews for his mockumentary Religulous sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same method that Ben Stein & co. used for Expelled. From an LA […]