Archive

Archive for October, 2014

7 Strategies for Teaching Student Journalists to Cover Midterm Elections

October 31, 2014 Leave a comment

My latest piece for PBS’ MediaShift argues that we need to rethink how we train journalists to cover elections. The rapidly warming relationship between journalists and poltiical scientists points to some things journalism educators can do to improve campaign coverage. The piece is here.

 

 

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What Do The Polls Really Tell Us About the Governor’s Race In Wisconsin?

October 21, 2014 Leave a comment

I was delighted to participate in a forum sponsored by the CapTimes addressing what the polls can tell us about the Wisconsin gubernatorial race. Polling expert and all around good guy Charles Franklin (@pollsandvotes in the Twittersphere), political scientist and gov’s race aggregated poll modeler Brad Jones, and the well-known Democratic pollster Paul Maslin were also on the panel. It was a fun hour. One fun exchange between Paul Maslin and me is here. More videos to come. Moreover, we should all be on the lookout for more interesting forums like this one that the CapTimes will be sponsoring in the future.

In addition to the polls, I talked a bit about history and how hard it has been to unseat governors seeking re-election across our great land. I also shared a bit of research from Diana Mutz on the third-person effect and Danny Hayes on how the media cover campaigns when the polls are close and when they are not.

The great work Charles has done on the Marquette Law Poll and that Brad has done modeling the available surveys suggests a very close race here in the Badger State. Stories on the event are here and here.

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WORT Conversation about the Acceptance Journeys Project

October 14, 2014 Leave a comment

Here is a link to my conversation with Shawnika Hull, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, about her incredible research that aims to reduce homophobia and the spread of HIV among black men in Milwaukee. We spoke on October 13th, on 89.9 WORT radio – the people’s megaphone.

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