Knight Center researcher Jack Nissen received top honors at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Festival  (UURAF) at MSU.
Nissen’s poster titled  “Tackling uncertainty: How do journalists report the ‘what ifs’ of el Niño” placed first in section one of the Communication Arts and Sciences competition.
Nissen, a journalism junior at MSU, conducted this research project under the guidance of Knight Center Research Director Bruno Takahashi. Nissen analyzed the concept of scientific uncertainty used in news articles that talked about El Niño in three publications in California from October 2015 to January 2016.
The research was presented on April 8, 2016 in the MSU Union ballroom. This was the first time Nissen presented a scholarly project. Discussions with the judges of the event centered around the challenges of analyzing news articles, as well as gaining a better understanding of what ambiguity and uncertainty mean in the media.
Nissen will next work on an academic article based on this study that will be submitted for publication later in the summer of 2016.