Guest Thinkers

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 […]

In an analysis released last week, Pew reports that during a three month period (Dec. 13-March 13, 2008), only 2% of front page stories at the New York Times and […]

Two weeks ago, as Expelled premiered in more than a 1,000 theaters across the country, I went with several friends and graduate students for an early Friday evening screening at […]

Dallas Morning News runs this profile of Premise Media CEO A. Logan Craft. The feature spotlights the results of theater exit data collected by Premise and sheds additional light on […]

As I wrote yesterday, one of the emotional strategies employed in Expelled is to paint atheist pundits as the stand-ins for “big science,” in the process selectively avoiding interviews with […]

As I have argued in talks and articles over the past year, the communication challenge on global warming is to create the public opinion environment where meaningful policy action can […]

In an op-ed at the Seattle Times, communication scholars Dave Domke and Kevin Coe note the absurd God & Country tests that have been applied to Barack Obama, ranging from […]

In his appearance last week on NPR Science Friday (audio), Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs framed the climate challenge not in terms of regulating pollution but rather as an energy and […]

Few details are provided, but in a buzz-generating interview, here is what The Sun (UK) reports: “The former US Vice President said: ‘I will make a sequel to the 2006 […]

The Center for Inquiry’s Susan Jacoby, author of the NYTimes bestseller The Age of American Unreason, appeared last night on The Colbert Report. As Colbert remarked, he prefers emotion over […]

Earlier this week, I argued that a fundamental shift was needed in climate change communication strategy and that the shift meant refocusing news coverage on urban areas rather than arctic […]

Following the AAAS meetings in February, I had this to say about the future of science and environmental journalism: The future will be online, in film, and/or multi-media, merging reporting […]

The Pope is technically a head of state, so when he visits the US, why doesn’t the news media spend more time asking him hard hitting questions about church policy […]

In the wake of Clinton’s victory in Pennsylvania, the NY Times editorialized that Hillary’s campaign team had taken “the low road to victory.” According to the Times, one particular ad […]

Back in the spring of 2006, Time magazine ran the cover at left warning Americans to “Be Worried, Be VERY Worried” about global warming. As I’ve written in different places […]

Despite record amounts of media attention and ever certain science about threats to the environment, Americans’ commitment to taking environmentally sustainable actions remains little changed over the past eight years. […]

Back in February, I traveled to Rome, Italy to present at a conference sponsored by Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the Adriano Olivetti Foundation. The focus was on climate change […]

In Expelled, Richard Dawkins recounts how learning about science “killed off” his faith. And PZ Myers tells us that the more science literacy we have in society, the less religion […]

In a recent analysis, Pew finds that news attention to Iraq has sharply declined since last year, overshadowed in coverage by the dominance of the Democratic primary race and the […]

On the eve of Expelled premiering in theaters across the country, Pew offers a wide ranging Q&A; with Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project. The full interview is […]

From the National Academies recent report on evolution: “As SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM makes clear, the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. Science and religion are […]

The latest in the Science Communication Consortium series… The Science Communication Consortium presents:Science and Congress: The Role of Think Tanks and Congressional Science CommitteesThursday, April 24, 20087:00-8:30pmCUNY – 365 Fifth […]

Next week, on Friday April 18, I will be giving a talk at the National Science Foundation, sponsored by the National Capital Area Skeptics. Open to the public and NSF […]

In a recent episode (podcast) of the CBC series “How to Think About Science,” here’s how Harvard historian of science Steven Shapin answers that question: I believe of course that […]

With Pope Benedict’s visit to the United States this week, Gallup has released a survey measuring Americans views on various religious groups as well as atheists. Favorable perceptions of atheists […]

In the left side bar, I have had a standing policy on comments for the past year. Here’s what it says: Keep it substantive, serious minded, on topic, and respectful. […]

As I have mentioned here before, one of the studies I am working on evaluates the impact of documentary film across audiences, news coverage, and policy contexts. I have written […]

When producers release a documentary about a public affairs topic, especially in the case of a propaganda film like Expelled, they create several natural advantages over the typical news coverage […]

I’m hitting the road for talks at Princeton, but a quick post on Gore’s new ad campaign, launched officially with an appearance last night on 60 Minutes.I haven’t see the […]

A few weeks ago I highlighted this relevant finding from the massive amount of data contained in Pew’s annual State of the Media report. And Chris highlighted the results of […]