nisbetmc | January 8, 2007As I predicted, stem cell opponents have issued a press release "pleading" with Dems to hold off on a stem cell bill in light of the Nature Biotechnology study on amniotic stem cells:
Christian Groups Urge Pelosi to Hold Off Embryonic Stem Cell Bills Based on New Scientific Discovery
A growing coalition of Faith organizations are expected to hand-deliver a letter to Speaker Pelosi this week.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Groundbreaking scientific advances in stem cell research released today by Nature Biotechnology may resolve the decade-old moral dilemma concerning the…
nisbetmc | January 8, 2007The Washington Post has these details on the problems House Dems face as they juggle Iraq with the agenda items of stem cell research, minimum wage, and other domestic issues.
nisbetmc | January 8, 2007In an article fronting today's Washington Post, Rick Weiss gives us a preview of the rhetorical struggle that is sure to be part of this week's House stem cell debate, namely the efforts by research opponents to spin the amniotic stem cell study as a "middle way" compromise solution to overturning Bush's flawed stem cell policy.
Atala and other scientists emphasized that they don't believe the cells will make embryonic stem cells irrelevant. "There's not going to be one shoe that fits all," said Robert Lanza, scientific director at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass. "We're going to…
nisbetmc | January 8, 2007
After spending the past three years on the faculty at Ohio State, I remain ambivalent about the vast commercialization and big time money pouring into college athletics. Of course, it will all be on stage tonight as OSU takes on Florida in the BCS championship game.
As USA Today spotlighted last Friday in a front page cover story, Ohio State outspends every university in the country on athletics, and football obviously is the cash cow. One can raise eyebrows about the $2 million-a-year salary for Jim Tressel, express doubts about whether you want the football coach to the be national face…
nisbetmc | January 8, 2007
This week all eyes will be on Capitol Hill as Nancy Pelosi and the newly elected House majority push for stem cell legislation that would override President George W. Bush's tight limits on research funding. Supporters will need to achieve a super majority in both houses in order to stave off a Bush veto. The Center for American Progress estimates that backers of the bill might be as many as 40 votes shy of a 2/3 majority in the House, but perhaps only one vote shy in the Senate.
Both sides in the debate are geared up for a major political communication battle, and in a new "Science and…
nisbetmc | January 7, 2007Think Progress has the video of Sunday's speculation at ABC News This Week that newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi may appoint a special committee on global warming. Watch it here.
nisbetmc | January 5, 2007
Gallup just released the latest in their trends on news consumption patterns. There's a lot to debate about these poll measures, but they do provide one indicator among many about what might be going on with audiences. In fact, these numbers are best compared for reliability against the annual Pew Center for the People and the Press news consumption surveys and other sources.
According to Gallup, local TV news continues to dominate as an information source for Americans, with 55% reporting that they tune into the medium every day. This pattern has held steady for the past ten years.…
nisbetmc | January 5, 2007
Haven't heard of Second Life? It's a 3-D virtual world built by users or "residents" worldwide. Imagine the video game World of Warcraft, but no game, just a cyber-community evolving in ways both similar and different from the real world.
The best way for me to describe Second Life is if you watch the news clip from Australian Broadcasting News above. Just press play.
The creations of this world, including island mansions, stores, fantasy theme parks, virtual lectures, films, and cocktail parties, are designed by the registered users or "residents." Users navigate these creations by way…
nisbetmc | January 3, 2007Part 1 of Segment
Part 2 of Segment
Stay the Course versus Cut and Run versus Surge and Accelerate. Over the past month, as the Bush team has unpacked its new language of "surge and accelerate," they have successfully shifted the terms of discussion away from troop withdrawal and a timeline for handover to an absurdly sexual metaphor that in reality means simply "more of the same" and "stay the course."
There is a lot to say about this new frame device, and its power, but I think last night on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann covered much of the ground in television commentary that channels the…
nisbetmc | January 3, 2007
In case you were wondering, why in an era of extreme media fragmentation, polls show that Republicans rank global warming as less of a priority than flag burning or the estate tax (Pew 2006, slide #22), the following comes my way via the email updates from the Center for American Progress and Think Progress:
This past month, Denver, CO, was blanketed by two snowstorms, dumping approximately two feet of snow on the city during the holiday season. The right wing is now using these blizzards as evidence against climate change. Yesterday, climate skeptics Pat Michaels and Dan Gainor appeared on…
nisbetmc | January 3, 2007
Time out for a bit of soft journalism....Variety reports that after an eighteen year wait, Indiana Jones 4 is going into production and will be released in May 2008.
After years of languishing in development, the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise is finally moving ahead, as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford look to reconnect with their blockbuster roots. For Spielberg in particular, the project marks a return to the kind of pure entertainment fare on which he built his career before his interests turned to more social-minded fare like "Schindler's List," "…
nisbetmc | January 2, 2007
On YouTube over the weekend, John Edwards announced his candidacy for president. Apart from his "Two Americas" theme on economic and racial justice, science issues stand as a secondary part of his platform.
On ABC News This Week, Edwards was asked by host George Stephanopoulos about his positions on global warming, as well as the environment and free trade. The transcript of his answer appears below, and the video of the full interview is available at ABC News.
ON GLOBAL WARMING
STEPHANOPOULOS: What kinds of sacrifices will Americans have to make to make us energy independent to combat…
nisbetmc | January 2, 2007
Over at Nanopublic, Dietram Scheufele reminds me of something I overlooked last week when I spotlighted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's framing of environmental issues as a public health matter. According to the Humvee Governor, not only is California's leadership on global warming similar to the state's trendsetting on bodybuilding back in the 1970s, but being a leader on the environment is also important for the US in terms of public diplomacy. Here are the full quotes from the Washington Post article as only Schwarzenegger can phrase it:
"You go back to bodybuilding," he added, musing…
nisbetmc | January 2, 2007
Citizens are cognitive misers, meaning they rely on images and short cuts rather than knowledge to make up their minds about issues. It might run counter to democratic ideals and what scientists might prefer, but it's reality. One of the dominant heuristics is humor, as evidenced by the popularity of The Daily Show, and the impact of late night comedy on political campaigns.
So on the issue of climate change, how do you take into account this human tendency while also maximizing use of viral marketing techniques and new media platforms like YouTube? Well the Save Santa campaign is one…
nisbetmc | January 2, 2007
Over the weekend, Andrew Revkin at the NY Times wrote a very timely and important peice detailing the growing unease among many scientists and policy experts with the new "normal' in the framing of global warming by environmental advocates, journalists, and even some scientists. This new frame I label the "Pandora's box" interpretation, and it's something I've detailed in recent months here at Framing Science, and in several talks here in DC.
Advocates use this interpretation to define global warming as a looming catastrophe of unknown and devastating consequences that requires immediate…
nisbetmc | January 2, 2007Looks like the the folks at the Project for Excellence in Journalism are about to launch a very interesting and much needed monthly media content analysis. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, this type of "industrial"-size quantitative analysis of news trends has been talked about for a long time, but no one has been able to pull it off. Consider this project to be the news content parallel to political polling. Here's what Peter Johnson in his Media Mix column at USA Today reports:
...this month when the Project for Excellence in Journalism kicks off an ambitious weekly study of what…
nisbetmc | January 1, 2007
In DC over the weekend, the conversational buzz at coffee shops, wine bars, and holiday parties has focused on the graphic reports of Saddam Hussein's execution. Friends from both sides of the political fence are using words like "banal," "barbaric," "creepy," and "grotesque" to describe their reaction to the events. Questions about the timing of the execution, the chaotic nature of the trial, and the not-so-civilized death penalty, ("Only in Iraq and Texas...), serve as fodder for much of the chatter.
The mood is a stark contrast from cable news coverage and the front page headlines…
nisbetmc | December 30, 2006
In more than 20 articles over the past year, a team of New York Times reporters and editors have detailed many of the intersections between energy policy and the environment.
It's a tough issue to cover since it doesn't fit neatly any single traditional news beat. In fact, it spans many beats including science, the environment, business, regulatory agencies, and political news. Energy issues are also very technical, and frankly, while extremely important, can also be pretty boring. So for reporters who have to dramatize any issue to sustain reader attention, energy might be one of the…
nisbetmc | December 29, 2006
In the 1976 presidential campaign, Ford used political ads featuring endorsements from Evangelical leaders to counter Jimmy Carter's image of piety and to turn the Baptist governor's famous Playboy interview against him. Today, with all the focus on religion and politics, a political ad of this sort would be unthinkable, yet it ran nationally in 1976.
nisbetmc | December 29, 2006
The game is afoot to define the presidency of Gerald Ford. The dominant narrative from the mainstream media is that Ford was the "Great Healer," an extinct species of bi-partisan statesman who guided the country through the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and the pullout from Vietnam.
The lead to this front page story by Peter Baker of the Washington Post represents the dominant media narrative of "bi-partisan healer":
A nation deeply polarized by war and partisanship came together yesterday to mourn Gerald Rudolph Ford as a healer during a previous era of division, while Washington…