Research

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who would disagree that American politics are highly partisan. Partisanship has been on the rise since the 1970s, and the consensus among the media seems to be that political polarization has skyrocketed since the beginning of the campaign season for the 2016 presidential election.

Public confidence in science has remained high and stable for years. But recent decades have seen incidents of scientific fraud and misconduct, failure to replicate key findings, and growth in the number of retractions — all of which may affect trust in science.

Many users thought doubling Twitter’s character limit from 140 characters to 280 could only make the platform more prone to bullying. But a new study, led by Professor Yphtach Lelkes, found that the average quality of conversation improved.

The annual Annenberg Public Policy Center civics knowledge survey found that 39% of Americans could correctly name the three branches of government, which is the highest in five years.

A new report from the Media, Inequality and Change (MIC) Center details the kinds of online privacy tradeoffs that disproportionately impact cell-mostly internet users — who are likely to be Black, Hispanic, and/or low-income.

A new report from the MIC Center and the Center for Media at Risk, written by Ph.D. student Muira McCammon, considers how local and state level bureaucracies have impacted the functioning of contemporary Philadelphia newsrooms.

Misinformation and fake news are rampant in the current media environment. Of particular concern is misinformation regarding health issues, like vaccines, infectious diseases, or cancer. Widespread health misinformation is cause for alarm, as it has the potential to create public health crises. The recent measles outbreak is a prime example.

How can we stop the spread of heath misinformation?

Eleven Annenberg faculty members and graduate students will present at the American Political Science Association’s 2019 Meeting, to be held August 29 – September 1 in Washington, D.C.

The presentations are listed below. For the full program, visit APSA’s conference website.

Wednesday, August 28

Preconference Panels

Misinformation and Propaganda around the Globe

Teachers spend their time educating young people, imparting both intellectual knowledge and practical life skills, in an attempt to help children grow into adults. They often do this for low pay and little thanks. They are the best of us, or at least they’re supposed to be.

But teachers are regular people, too. And regular people have biases that sometimes inhibit their abilities to do their jobs.

A forthcoming study — authored by Annenberg School for Communication alumni Elena Maris (Ph.D. ’18) and Timothy Libert (Ph.D. ’17) and doctoral candidate Jennifer R. Henrichsen — analyzed over 22,000 pornography websites and found that 93% of them were sending user data to at least one third party.