Category Archives: Research

        
 
 
 
 

Knight Center faculty, alumni publish ethanol headline study

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Research Director Bruno Takahashi and former Knight Center graduate students Carol Terracina-Hartman and Katie Amann have published a new study titled “Policy, economic themes dominate ethanol headlines” in Newspaper Research Journal.
The study examines issue attributes, themes, tone and sources in U.S. elite newspaper headlines between 1987 and 2011. The results show a dominance of policy and economic themes and the prevalence of ethanol industry representatives over government sources.
The study was co-authored with Mark Meisner, executive director of the International Environmental Communication Association.

Knight Center researcher wins top poster award for Flint water crisis reporting project

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Nissen URAAF

Jack Nissen


For the second year in a row, Knight Center researcher Jack Nissen won a top poster award at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) at MSU.
Nissen won first place in the Communication Arts & Sciences-Section 3 for a qualitative study titled: “Crisis reporting and community engagement: The role of local reporters during the Flint water crisis.” The presentation took place on April 7, 2017.
Through conversations conducted over a series of weeks, journalists intimately involved in local coverage of the crisis were interviewed about their experiences reporting. Questions focused on newsroom resource allocation, national media coverage and journalistic responsibility to the community.
A senior majoring in Journalism, this is Nissen’s second year of research under the guidance of Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi. He’ll conduct more interviews to better understand how journalists operated during the crisis.

Knight Center researchers publish study examining energy behaviors among Hispanics

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Brunotonyran2

Dr. Bruno Takahashi, Tony Van Witsen, Ran Duan


Knight Center research director, Bruno Takahashi, and Ph.D students Ran Duan and Anthony Van Witsen, have published a new study in the journal Social Science Quarterly. The study titled “Hispanics’ behavioral intentions towards energy conservation: The role of socio-demographic, informational, and attitudinal variables” uses survey data from the University of Texas at Austin to examine the factors that influence energy related behaviors among Hispanics in the US.
The results show that Hispanics in the West report higher levels of intention to save energy than those in any other regions of the country. On the other hand, there is no clear pattern indicating that intentions to save energy were linked to Hispanics’ ethnic groups such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, or Cubans. Other factors related to energy-related behavioral intentions include information dissemination, environmental concern, and environmental beliefs.
This study was designed as a challenge to the dominant view that Hispanics in the US are a homogeneous group when it comes to environmental beliefs and behaviors. The study is part of a line of research looking at information sources used by minorities – including the news media- that the Knight Center research team is pursuing.

Research director publishes study on Spanish-Language media coverage of environmental issues

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Chavez, Takahashi

Dr. Manuel Chavez, Dr. Bruno Takahashi


Knight Center research director Bruno Takahashi and faculty affiliate Manuel Chavez published a study titled “El Ambiente y Las Noticias: Understanding U.S. Spanish- Language Newsrooms’ Coverage of Environmental Issues” in the International Journal of Hispanic Media.
The study was co-authored with Juliet Pinto and Mercedes Vigón from Florida International University.
The researchers examined the content of environmental news in Spanish-language television stations and newspapers, reporting a very limited amount of coverage that mostly focused on specific events, such as hurricane Sandy.
They also interviewed 12 news professionals at various Spanish-language news organizations to examine their coverage of environmental issues. The findings demonstrate that the impact of revenue-streams needs, the perception that environmental news is not important, and the perception that environmental coverage lacks immediacy and impact are the main factors explaining the lack of coverage of issues such as climate change.
The results of the study are important because the Hispanic population will continue to grow in size and power in the U.S., and the coverage of environmental issues such as climate change will become more important for them. Understanding the gaps in the coverage and the factors preventing such coverage is a necessary step in improving environmental reporting by Spanish-language media.
The study can be accessed here.