Brendan Nyhan

New NYT: Our short attention span on foreign disasters

From my new Upshot column:

Saturday’s huge earthquake in Nepal killed at least 5,000 people, injured more than 8,000, and affected millions more. Relief efforts are underway to aid the survivors.

The extent of American aid may be limited, however, by our collective attention span. In the days since the quake, the riots in Baltimore after a man died from injuries suffered while in police custody came to dominate the news cycle. Reporting on events there has pushed news about the earthquake off the front page and attracted extensive cable news coverage. What coverage remains of the aftermath has tended to focus on the fate of a small number of Western climbers on Mount Everest rather than the larger humanitarian crisis.

The events in Baltimore and Nepal are both important and deserve our attention. But foreign news generates far less interest from consumers than domestic events. As a result, a story about a disaster like Nepal’s is more easily pushed off the news agenda.

New NYT: Fact-checking improves citizen knowledge

From my new Upshot column:

Fact-checks of politicians’ statements have become increasingly prominent in media coverage of American politics. With dedicated fact-checkers like PolitiFact and recurring features in newspapers like The New York Times and news agencies like The Associated Press, more journalists are trying to assess the accuracy of claims made by public figures than ever before.

The audience for fact-checking is growing as well — on some days during the 2012 presidential campaign, for instance, PolitiFact was getting a million page views a day.

But are people learning about politics from these fact-checks? Or are they just cheering for their side and seeking out reinforcement for what they already believe?

This column draws on new research with Jason Reifler on the long-term effects of fact-checking exposure that we summarized in a new American Press Institute report. Lucas Graves, Jason, and I also released an API report examining the growth of fact-checking within political journalism.

New NYT: Why CA approach to vaccines could backfire

From my new Upshot column:

In a number of states, parents are allowed to opt out of legal requirements to have their children vaccinated before entering school by claiming a “personal belief” or “philosophical” exemption. These provisions have raised a great deal of concern since the Disneyland measles outbreak, including in California, where it began. Unfortunately, the blundering approach state legislators there have taken to the issue shows how direct attacks on exemptions can rally the anti-vaccine cause.

New NYT: How Walker dodged the inauthentic label

From my new Upshot column:

It may be called waffling, flip-flopping or evolving, but every four years new presidential candidates find themselves adjusting inconvenient positions that might hinder their bid for the nomination.

What’s striking, though, is how some candidates who make these changes are portrayed as inauthentic by party elites and primary voters, and others — like Scott Walker — aren’t.