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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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Like climate change or poverty, political polarization in the United States may itself be a “wicked” problem, not something we are going to solve or end over the next decade, […]
This semester, students from a diversity of majors at American University are participating in an advanced seminar I am teaching on science and environmental communication. For the first part of the […]
On January 19-21, the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute and the Union of Concerned Scientists hosted a major summit of more than 100 social scientists, scientists, professionals, and political leaders […]
–Guest post by Declan Fahy, AoE’s Science and Culture correspondent. Writer David Milch, a creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, was quoted in a talk by author Michael Crichton as […]
In Monday’s GOP primary debate, Newt Gingrich earned praise from conservatives while drawing justifiable anger from many for his labeling of Barack Obama as the “food stamp president.” As the […]
The polarized state of American politics has once again brought speculation and claims about a rising tide of anti-science in America and an attack on reason. The prominence of such […]
— Guest post by Declan Fahy, AoE Science and Culture Correspondent (Twitter @fahydeclan) The media largely failed to give a measured account of its role in Stephen Hawking’s life and […]
Social protest may be the most difficult type of event for journalists to cover, especially when the protest offers few visible leaders or concrete policy goals and when much of […]
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of research from the social and behavioral sciences offering insight on how individuals, social groups and political systems come to understand […]
–Guest post by Patrick Riley, AoE Culture Correspondent and Filmmaker. Nothing changes on New Year’s Day? U2’s Bono had it right – at least when it comes to media coverage […]
–Guest post by Declan Fahy, AoE Science & Culture correspondent Richard Dawkins guest-edited the Christmas edition of British left-wing politics and culture magazine The New Statesman — and it contains […]
Labeling coffee as “fair trade” can boost sales by 10%, finds a recent study. The findings shed light on the rapid growth of the fair trade and organic markets. But […]
Over the Holiday break, I read Walter Isaacson’s masterful and absorbing biography of Steve Jobs. As his biography reveals, Jobs was a dark, complex and often deeply contradictory figure. “There […]
As our political and media systems rapidly evolve, social scientists are revisiting and updating existing models, theories, and methods for investigating the effects of the media on political attitudes and […]
Following up on our study analyzing the shifting roles and emerging practices of science journalists in the digital age, Declan Fahy contributed a valuable discussion to the news site of […]
Who controls the Internet and how do these powerful groups shape our choices and in some cases threaten our privacy? Those are among the questions probed by Laura DeNardis, an […]
Voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections tends to be lower than other developed democracies and relative to the number of eligible voters., Voter turn-out for those ages 18 to 24 […]
–Guest post by Yuwen Yang, American University graduate student. In January 2009, new voluntary pharmaceutical industry guidelines on marketing to physicians went into effect (David 2010), which emphasize disclosure and […]
–Guest post by Xiao He, American University graduate student. Developments in Web marketing and social media provide new platforms and strategies for pharmaceutical companies to interact with investors. Among the […]
–Guest post by Meng Shi, American University graduate student with contributions from Matthew Nisbet. Framing is a frequently used term that derives from several decades of research in the social […]