Matthew C. Nisbet

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."

In a 2008 study led by my colleague Ed Maibach,  over half of the nation’s public health departments reported that their communities were already experiencing health effects from climate change, […]
Since the birth of mass market advertising, one of the longest standing strategies has been to call a product “all natural.” Today, this key word has been joined by others […]
In a guest post today, Melissa Johnson considers the challenge in conveying the risks of climate change without resulting to dire messages that might unintentionally seed ambivalence or even strengthen […]
At Miller-McCune magazine, Emily Badger discusses  several key themes of the Climate Shift report, focusing on how the reaction from several bloggers connects to the findings of Chapter 4.  The full article is worth a […]
Driving or walking down the street to a supermarket is not a problem for the majority of the United States. With this one action, most households are able to purchase […]
The increasing number of urban gardens that are springing up across cities like Washington, D.C. are much more than the addition of new green space, they are important sites of […]
One of the major strategic communication battles that took place during the debate over cap and trade legislation was the advertising war between the Clean Coal Coalition and Al Gore’s […]