Author: TheConversation

By Danielle K. Brown, Professor of Journalism, Michigan State University Protest movements can look very different depending on where you stand, both literally and figuratively. For protesters, demonstrations are usually the result of meticulous planning by advocacy groups and leaders aimed at getting a message out to a wider world or to specific institutional targets. To outside onlookers, however, protests can seem disorganized and disruptive, and it can be difficult to see the depth of the effort or their aims. Take the pro-Palestinian protests that have sprung up at campuses across the United States in recent weeks. To the...

By Colleen Murrell, Full Professor in Journalism, Dublin City University Accusations about Israeli censorship of the media went mainstream in the U.S. recently when The New York Times published an opinion piece headlined: “The Israeli Censorship Regime is Growing. That Needs to Stop.” In the piece Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), wrote: “The high rate of journalists’ deaths and arrests, including a slew in the West Bank; laws allowing its government to shut down foreign news outlets deemed a security risk, which the prime minister has explicitly threatened to use against Al...

By Rodney Benson, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University; and Victor Pickard, C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, University of Pennsylvania For the journalism industry, 2024 is off to a brutal start. Most spectacularly, the Los Angeles Times recently slashed more than 20% of its newsroom. Though trouble had long been brewing, the layoffs were particularly disheartening because many employees and readers hoped the Times’ billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, would stay the course in good times and bad – that he would be a steward less interested in turning a profit and...

By Rhea Almeida, Research Project Manager, NYU Metro Center, New York University When it comes to summer learning, the benefits are well documented. Students who consistently attend well-planned, high-quality programs achieve higher scores on math and language arts testing. They also earn higher ratings from teachers on their social and emotional skills, research shows. Unfortunately, research also shows that students from low-income and minority backgrounds are less likely to attend – and benefit from – summer learning programs than their affluent and white peers. Summer learning can play a crucial role in helping these students – and all kids...

By Thomas F. Schaller, Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Rural white voters have long enjoyed outsize power in American politics. They have inflated voting power in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the Electoral College. Although there is no uniform definition of “rural,” and even federal agencies cannot agree on a single standard, roughly 20% of Americans live in rural communities, according to the Census Bureau’s definition. And three-quarters of them – or approximately 15% of the U.S. population – are White. Since the rise of Jacksonian democracy and the expansion of the vote...

By Keith A. Preble, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Miami University; Charmaine N. Willis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science, Skidmore College Almost two years after the West responded to the Russian invasion in Ukraine with a blistering array of sanctions, a fresh round of financial measures was announced by the Biden administration on February 23, 2024. The new sanctions, imposed following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, raised the number of individuals and entities now targeted by the U.S. to more than 2,000. These measures have run the gamut, from targeted sanctions against President Vladimir...