TopicsOn The Media is produced by:
The Weather Channel, long a stalwart of straight-ahead weather reporting, has decided to start comprehensively following the story of climate change. The channel’s resident climatologist Heidi Cullen argues that all TV meteorologists should integrate climate change science into every weather report.
The G8 summit in Germany this week brought new rhetoric from the United States about climate change. President Bush seemed to signal a willingness to cooperate with international partners, after nearly a decade of ignoring international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. Andrew Revkin, environment reporter for The New York Times, looks at how Bush has warmed to a new approach and the unlikely influence of an old Bush nemesis, Al Gore.
The recurrence of cancer in both Tony Snow and Elizabeth Edwards brought the disease back into the news this week. Cancer historian James S. Olson explains why a disease as old as we are is just beginning to change its public image.
The psychological trauma of war isn’t new, but the diagnosis is. “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” was coined in 1980, and gave the medical establishment a way to understand the struggles of returning soldiers. PTSD expert Dr. Matthew Friedman explains how changing the phrase helps change the suffering.
The impact of movie sex and violence on kids may be up for debate, but with smoking, the science is solid. Teens who see a lot of it are more likely to take up the habit than those who don’t. UCSF Dr. Stanton Glantz wants the MPAA to take smoking as seriously as it takes cursing.
Computer scientist Gordon Bell is at the vanguard of a movement called “lifelogging,” digitally recording every moment of his day in an effort to create a complete virtual memory of his life. But why? We talk with Bell and also technology writer Clive Thompson about the implications.
Listen to Brooke's unedited interview with Clive Thompson here.
Avian flu continues to garner headlines – last week’s good, but this week’s bad. In either case, concerns about a pandemic are still real, at least judging from the press. And yet fewer than 150 people have been killed by the illness worldwide. Mike Pesca talks about media and the politics of panic with NYU professor of medicine Marc Siegel, who thinks one of the biggest threats to public health is fear.
For years, mainstream reporting on climate change played down the threat, by playing up the impression that the jury was still out about its causes and effects. But looking at recent media, the debate seems to have quieted down, and signs of looming apocalypse are everywhere. Advocates hail the attention, but New York Times science reporter Andrew Revkin thinks the sensational stories could ultimately backfire. He tells Brooke why it’s so hard for newspapers to get the story right.
