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That the war in Afghanistan is getting attention at all right now from the media is downright surprising. Forgotten, undercovered and just plain ignored, coverage of the war there filled only about one percent of the news hole in 2008. But, as PEJ associate director Mark Jurkowitz explains, there’s been a sea change.
Two books about the Vietnam War are reportedly shaping the policy debate about Afghanistan. One is circulating among military circles and the other is being passed around the White House. All this reading is making The New Yorker's George Packer a bit nervous. He explains why.
The rules governing what embedded photojournalists in Eastern Afghanistan can photograph have changed.
Last Sunday, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, appearing on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” called the Fox News Channel “the communications arm of the Republican Party.” “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz says the Obama Administration is picking the wrong fight.
Ever feel like online advertisers know you a little too well? If so, you're not alone. UPenn Professor Joseph Turow, lead author of a new study on behavioral advertising, says that two-thirds of people object to targeted ads and the online tracking that marketers do to produce them.
Ava Seave, co-author of the new book “The Curse of the Mogul,” says that the age of the media mogul is ending. She explains why, and theorizes about what might take its place.
Massively multiplayer online games are able to store reams of data about their avatars' every transaction. It turns out this information can serve as a model for real-world concepts, such as economics. Researcher Dmitri Williams has been studying EverQuest II and says the information he and his colleagues get from that game is better than any data they could expect from a traditional survey.
Many people go to the movies to escape, and one could certainly understand wanting to get away from the Great Depression for an hour or two. But Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark, says filmgoers in the 1930s were hardly watching escapist diversions. The films reflected and explored the audience’s unease.
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As people get the H1N1 vaccine, there will inevitably be cases of seizures, heart attacks, strokes and miscarriages -- all unrelated to the vaccine itself. Centers for Disease Control media relations director Glen Nowak says his agency is reminding reporters about the difference between correlation and causation.
Much attention has been paid to three provisions of The Patriot Act set to expire this year, but civil libertarians say the focus should be on a lesser noticed portion of the law having to do with National Security Letters. Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, says the NSL's are often misused.
On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.
