Election Beat 2020: Preventing an election night nightmare
Focusing on the electoral vote on election night will highlight yet-to-be-counted ballots and slow the urge to call the election too soon.
Research roundups, articles, explainers and tip sheets about how journalists report the news and how audiences consume it
Focusing on the electoral vote on election night will highlight yet-to-be-counted ballots and slow the urge to call the election too soon.
Expert Commentary
As Election Day has drawn closer, opinion polls have taken up ever more of the news hole. Which of the dozens of polls that cross journalists’ desks are reliable, and which should be ignored?
Expert Commentary
The news media would perform a public service by making Americans aware of voter registration deadlines and what they need to do to participate in elections, writes media scholar Thomas E. Patterson.
Expert Commentary
“The first presidential debate is but a week away. The challenge for news outlets will be to try to capture the debate as a whole and not through the lens of its most sensational moment,” writes Thomas E. Patterson.
Expert Commentary
Tom Patterson asks whether the press has an obligation to increase its focus on the U.S. census as the new deadline for the count approaches.
Expert Commentary
Today’s presidential nominees need not only convince voters that they’re the better choice but also that their party is an acceptable choice, writes Thomas E. Patterson.
Expert Commentary
Every presidential nominating convention since 1996 has produced a bump in the polls — referred to as a “convention bounce” — of 2% or less, Tom Patterson writes.
Expert Commentary
“In 2020, Hispanics and Asian Americans — the nation’s two largest recent immigrant groups — deserve close attention,” writes Harvard professor Thomas E. Patterson
Expert Commentary
By studying research on how the news media portray Asian Americans, journalists can gain insights into how their work is perceived and its consequences.
Expert Commentary
“If you’re not interviewing a nurse you may be missing the best part of the story,” says Diana Mason, a nurse, a professor at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at the George Washington University School of Nursing, and the former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Nursing.
Expert Commentary