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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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On TV, Neil deGrasse Tyson uses narrative to dramatize the importance of basic research.Last week in San Diego, I participated on a panel at the BIO 2008 meetings that focused […]
Here are the details on the talk I am giving with Chris Mooney tonight at Cal Tech. Also online are the syllabus and readings for the science communication workshop we […]
The box-office troubles of docs such as “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” is in contrast to Expelled’s impact.The LA Times runs a story this week on the downturn in box office fortunes […]
Next week, I will be teaming up with Chris Mooney at Cal Tech for an evening lecture followed by a day long science communication seminar for the university’s graduate students […]
Satire at its best, decoding the label “elitist” as applied to Barack Obama. As Colbert puts it: “Let’s face it, Obama is not an average Joe like me and David […]
In The Happening, “Marky” Mark Wahlberg plays a science teacher who tells his students that evolution is just a theory.Over at IO9, an influential science fiction and science blog, there’s […]
My latest “Science and the Media” column at Skeptical Inquirer Online is now up. In the column I review the likely audience impact of Expelled and focus on the use […]
The National Journal has released its annual survey of Congressional members on their views of climate science. When asked: “Do you think it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that […]
A recent report for the Gallup survey organization by Oklahoma State sociologist Riley Dunlap backs up what I have been arguing at this blog and in various articles regarding the […]
If the author is skeptical of mainstream science, is there a conservative think tank behind them?A new study by a team of political scientists and sociologists at the journal Environmental […]
So how did Barack Obama beat improbable odds to capture the Democratic nomination? A team of reporters at the Washington Post has the best account I’ve seen on Obama’s ingenious […]
At Knight Science Journalism Tracker, Charlie Petit has a pretty comprehensive round-up and commentary on news coverage of this week’s (failed) climate change legislation.
Note: Trends reflect the number of combined articles appearing annually in the New York Times and the Washington Post containing in the headline or lead paragraph the key words for […]
Released around the time of Expelled’s premiere, this YouTube clip produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science features Francis Collins, CEO Alan Leshner, and others discussing the […]
An artist’s take on the “scary wonder” of nanotechnology. The asbestos of tomorrow? As we wrote in our article last year at The Scientist, that’s not the type of frame […]
When Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006, Gallup polling showed that less than a majority of Americans had a favorable view of Al Gore. Yet just following his Nobel Prize […]
As I wrote last week, in John McCain’s recent television ad focusing on global warming, he frames his position as a pragmatic “middle way” approach between the two extremes of […]
The irony of the 2008 presidential race is that this time around, the Democratic nominee is by far the more religiously devout candidate, promoting a born again language and professed […]
At the BIO 2008 International Convention coming up in June in San Diego, I will be participating in a panel on the communication challenges facing biotechnology. Below are the details […]
The NY Times runs a lengthy front page Sunday feature exploring Obama’s years as an activist and politician in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. As the feature recounts, Obama […]