11.27
Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
Google News prioritizes national media over local
Google News prioritizes national media over local
A new study from the Annenberg School for Communication found that Google News prioritizes national media outlets over local media outlets in search results, even when users are searching for local topics.
The party of Lincoln? GOP’s future after the 2020 election
The party of Lincoln? GOP’s future after the 2020 election
As part of the Andrea Mitchell Center’s Race and Politics series, political scientist Rogers Smith spoke with former GOP communications director Tara Setmayer about the election’s impact on the identity of the Republican Party.
How did echo chambers influence the 2020 election?
How did echo chambers influence the 2020 election?
Research from the Annenberg School for Communication shows that people are consuming news from more diverse sources, but many don’t consume any news at all. It’s too soon to tell what role that played in the recent race for president.
‘Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement’
‘Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement’
Professor of religious studies Anthea Butler gave an overview of shared history and discussed next steps in “Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement,” an event hosted by the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
Design-minded strategies for greener, healthier indoor spaces
Design-minded strategies for greener, healthier indoor spaces
Insights on the evolution of modern building design, how to improve ventilation while reducing energy usage, and ways that architects are supporting their communities with simple, design-based solutions.
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
The world-renowned archaeologist has joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the Department of City and Regional Planning, and the Penn Museum as a curator in both the Asian and Near East sections.
Penn Trustees approve design for the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology
Penn Trustees approve design for the Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology
Additional support from P. Roy Vagelos and Diana T. Vagelos helps to expand the building project which will consolidate the University’s existing and future energy research.
Libraries scour the stacks for copyright free content
Libraries scour the stacks for copyright free content
Known as the Deep Backfile project, a team of Penn Libraries staff has been analyzing an accumulated history of periodicals in the collection to determine which are no longer restricted by copyright, making them available for free and unrestricted use.
Looking ahead to the election’s impact on U.S. foreign policy
Looking ahead to the election’s impact on U.S. foreign policy
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will make important choices about America’s relationships with allies and partners. A Perry World House roundtable looked at key topics for the new administration.
Making sense of the election
Making sense of the election
Penn political scientists helped a virtual audience process polling, voter turnout, litigation, and a chaotic presidential election.
In the News
The New York Times
A Thanksgiving myth debunked: People aren’t fighting about politics
Matthew Levendusky of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about how communication can bridge the divide between polarized political positions. In his 2016 study on the matter, Levendusky’s team “asked people where their position was, and where they thought the average Republican and Democratic positions were,” he said. “Basically, they thought the parties were twice as far apart as they are in reality, on a wide variety of issues.”
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The New York Times
Ad council’s challenge: Persuade skeptics to believe in COVID vaccines
Research conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Kathleen Hall Jamieson and postdocs Dominik Stecula and Ozan Kuru found that “a relatively high number of individuals are at least somewhat misinformed about vaccines,” due in part to exposure to anti-vaccine content on social media.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Thanksgiving 1918 took place during a deadly pandemic. What can it teach us for Thanksgiving 2020?
David Barnes of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the parallels between the flu pandemic of 1918 and the present pandemic. “It’s pretty clear [the Spanish flu] wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did or been as deadly if people had been keeping to themselves,” he said.
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The Washington Post
GOP’s post-election tactics are causing more concern about suppressing the Black vote, even after it happened
Ebony Thomas of the Graduate School of Education said that Michigan Republicans’ effort to disqualify the votes of Black voters is part of a long history of disenfranchisement. “One of the reasons Detroit is so negatively stigmatized and why the city of Detroit is always used as a boogeyman by the far right and by white supremacists is because it was a city that wasn’t just majority Black but under Black political control.”
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Salon.com
Enough with ‘both sides’! Faux-neutral journalism is no way to fight the truth-deniers
Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication spoke about corporate media’s reluctance to confront how their newsrooms covered the Trump era. “We must look seriously at the role they have played in normalizing fascistic politics—as well as the structural factors that cause these institutions to predictably fail in advancing democratic aims,” he said.
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