On March 3, the Quello Center co-hosted a roundtable on Fake News with the Department of Media and Information and the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Talks by Winson Peng, Esther Thorson, David Ewolsen, Keith Hampton, and Rachel Mourao kicked off a wide-ranging discussion. Each colleague seemed to approach the topic from their theoretical or methodological home, whether data science, journalism, social psychology or Internet studies, so I was left hoping for this discussion to help foster more inter-disciplinary collaboration. That said, the unique perspective of each academic was stimulating. From a Quello Center perspective, I asked how we […]
With August coming to a close, Avshalom Ginosar has completed his year as a Visiting Fellow at the Quello Center, and has returned to Israel. He left the James and Mary Quello Center with a beautiful photograph of Haifa from Mt Carmel, but also left us with much appreciation for his collaboration over the past year. Among his many contributions to the research environment of the Center, Avsha applied his journalism background to writing some engaging blogs about selected Quello Center events. Most importantly, his curiosity, experience and willingness to engage in all of our activities and discussions made him […]
As I explained in an earlier blog post, I believe potential risks associated with our ever-more-intensive use of wireless devices, and the expanding body of research suggesting such risks do exist, are being unwisely ignored in our rush to enjoy the benefits of these technologies. As that earlier post suggested, I see a need for: 1) A much-expanded program of research focused on understanding and mitigating EMF-related health risks, especially for vulnerable populations; 2) A fact-based and respectful discussion of research and public policy issues related to such risks. Given my interest in this subject, I thought I might learn […]
The implications of the digital age for the quality of information generally, and journalism in particular, has been a major issue for the study of communication technology, policy and regulation. The Quello Center has been interested in this issue, and one of its Associate Directors, Professor Steve Lacy, has co-authored a paper with Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute, entitled ‘Defining and Measuring Quality Journalism‘. If you are looking for appropriate metrics for capturing the quality of journalism, such as measures of diversity, depth, richness, length, and more, this is a must read – if not the place to […]
As someone who believes the Euro, as structured and managed today, is a deeply flawed system that has pushed Greece (and other nations) into a deep and prolonged depression, I was excited about Syriza’s recent victory and hopeful that the new Greek government could negotiate a deal with other Euro members to ease the pain of its citizens, and begin transitioning the Euro toward a fuller and healthier economic integration among its member states. But, according to this post on the Naked Capitalism blog, the latest signs are not good for this kind of positive outcome. Though I’m tempted to […]
Re-inventing Journalism by Avshalom Ginosar “Re-inventing Journalism” – this was the title of an international academic conference that took place in Winterthur, Switzerland (15 minutes from Zurich by train), on February 5th-6th. More than an hundred scholars, most of them from Europe, attended the conference. Most of the 23 different workshops and presentations addressed, in one way or another, the transition of journalism onto the online world. It seems that this issue occupies not only the industry of news which keeps looking for the successful new business model, but it is an issue of great confusion and concern for the […]
