Author: TheConversation

By Victor Pickard, Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania A foundation created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam gave $100 million to investigative news outlets and other initiatives in 2017, a rare boon for media institutions under duress. Even a fraction of this gift could help bolster impoverished American journalism. Yet, while foundation-backed nonprofit outlets have clear advantages over their commercial counterparts, they may never compensate for the market failure that’s afflicting journalism. As I present in my book America’s Battle for Media Democracy, commercial journalism’s deeply systemic problems call for structural alternatives, especially public models that...

By Dudley Poston and Rogelio Sáenz, • Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University • Professor of Demography, The University of Texas at San Antonio Since the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and the start of the Colonial period, the United States has been predominantly white. But the white share of the U.S. population has been dropping, from a little under 90% in 1950 to 60% in 2018. It will likely drop below 50% in another 25 years. White nationalists want America to be white again. But this will never happen. America is on its way to becoming predominantly nonwhite....

By David M. Mayer, Professor of Management & Organizations, University of Michigan Federal attorneys have arrested 50 people in a college admission scam that allowed wealthy parents to buy their kids’ admission to elite universities. Prosecutors found that parents together paid up to US$6.5 million to get their kids into college. Some might ask why did these parents fail to consider the moral implications of their actions? Research in moral psychology over the past 20 years suggests many reasons why people behave in an unethical manner. When it comes to the wealthy, research shows that they will go to...

By Kirby Farah, Lecturer of Anthropology, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo does not mark Mexican Independence, which is celebrated on September 16. Instead, it is meant to commemorate the Battle of Puebla, which was fought between the Mexican and French armies in 1862. In Mexico’s long and storied history, the Battle of Puebla is generally considered a fairly minor event. But its legacy lives on a century and a half later, particularly in the United States. BEATING BACK AN EMPIRE After Mexico won independence from...

By Joe R. Feagin, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University For the first time, most major Democratic presidential contenders are talking about whether the U.S. government should consider paying reparations to the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved and suffered from large-scale racial discrimination. At least three of these candidates, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, support the creation of a commission that would study the impact of slavery and the Jim Crow discrimination against black Americans that continued after emancipation. The commission would make...

By Chelsea Rochman and Diane Orihel, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto Assistant Professor, School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University, Ontario Global and local community leaders from more than 170 countries have pledged to “significantly reduce” the amount of single-use plastic products by 2030. Success would result in significantly less plastic pollution entering our oceans, lakes and rivers. Societies around the world have a love affair with disposable plastics. Just like some love stories, this one has an unhappy ending that results in plastic bags, straws and takeout containers strewn about the global environment. As...