LSC Professors Dominique Brossard and Dietram A. Scheufele have an opinion piece in today’s New York Times, “This Story Stinks,” about their recent research in The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication examining the effects of incivility in reader comments on perceptions of nanotechnology.
Brossard and Scheufele write:
“The Web, it should be said, is still a marvelous place for public debate. But when it comes to reading and understanding news stories online — like this one, for example — the medium can have a surprisingly potent effect on the message. Comments from some readers, our research shows, can significantly distort what other readers think was reported in the first place.”
Read the full piece from the Sunday Review here.
The full text of The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication article is available here. The study is lead by LSC alumna Ashley A. Anderson (Ph.D., ’12) and co-authored by LSC faculty Brossard and Scheufele, along with Associate Professor Michael Xenos from the UW-Madison Department of Communication Arts and LSC alumnus Peter Ladwig (M.S., ’11).
The study is based upon work supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to the UW-Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center in Templated Synthesis and Assembly at the Nanoscale (Grant No. SES-DMR-0832760). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.