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Climate Patterns
THE SOURCE: “Climate on Cable: The Nature and Impact of Global Warming Coverage on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC” by Lauren Feldman, Edward W. Maibach, Connie Roser-Renouf, and Anthony Leiserowitz, in The International Journal of Press/Politics, Nov. 2, 2011 (online).
Among scientists, the idea that global warming is occuring and that humans have contributed to it is an article of faith. There’s much more skepticism among American political and media elites: Only 20 percent of the program hours devoted to climate change that the Fox News Channel aired in 2007 and 2008 reflected that idea. Sixty percent of global warming airtime featured attacks on it, and 20 percent was mixed or neutral, reports a group of researchers from American, George Mason, and Yale Universities. During that same period, more than 70 percent of MSNBC and CNN segments reflected the view of mainstream science, with most of the remaining segments being neutral.
Researchers have long held that media partisanship affects viewers’ opinions, but the study suggests that the relationship is not entirely straightforward. Of about 2,100 Americans the researchers surveyed, Republicans reported opinions on climate change that varied with the cable news channels they watched, but Democrats did not.
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Brazil’s Popularity Problem
THE SOURCE: “A Leader Without Followers? The Growing Divergence Between the Regional and Global Performance of Brazilian Foreign Policy” by Andrés Malamud, in Latin American Politics and Society, Fall 2011.Checkpoints, Not Checks
THE SOURCE: “Do Working Men Rebel? Insurgency and Unemployment in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines” by Eli Berman, Michael Callen, Joseph H. Felter, and Jacob N. Shapiro, in Journal of Conflict Resolution, Aug. 2011.Capitalism, Chinese Style
THE SOURCE: “China’s Changing Guanxi Capitalism: Private Entrepreneurs Between Leninist Control and Relentless Accumulation” by Christopher A. McNally, in Business and Politics, Aug. 2011.