Age of Engagement

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 focused on the topic of  “Increasing Public Understanding of Climate Risks and Choices: What ... Read More

--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 saying that the scientific method was antithetical to storytelling. The point was that that the painstaking process of ... Read More

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 former Speaker of the House told moderator Juan Williams: "I’m going to continue to find ways to help poor ... Read More

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 claims will only likely grow as we near election season. Yet as many have pointed out, there is good reason to be ... Read More

-- 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 career when it reported the physicist's seventieth birthday last week, I argue in an article published today at the ... Read More

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 the movement's voice is coordinated across social media and other information technologies. As a result, coverage and ... Read More

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 and make decisions related to science, the environment, technology, and medicine. Research in this area ... Read More

--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 of the ongoing, if flagging, Occupy movement.  "They gotta be for something," political analyst Jimmy Williams said earlier ... Read More

--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 an interview he conducted with his fellow anti-theist Christopher Hitchens, the writer’s last ... Read More

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 as stories at the New York Times and Bloomberg this past week describe, as consumer demand grows, it is difficult for industry to live ... Read More

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 are parts of his life and personality that are extremely messy, and that's the truth," Jobs' wife told ... Read More

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 behavior.  Among topics, understanding the relationship between media and political ... Read More

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 the British Association of Science Writers which I have reposted below. Also see Fahy's article at CJR.org and a  ... Read More

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 Associate Professor of Communication at American University.   Below is an excerpt from a web story on DeNardis' work by ... Read More

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 tends to be even lower.  Looking at past elections, what conditions then tend to boost vote turn out among younger ... Read More