The satirical newspaper The Onion has yet to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize, despite its self-proclaimed status as “America’s finest news source.” A new campaign launched by the non-profit organization Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes is lobbying the Pulitzer committee to recognize The Onion’s excellence in...
The Secret Science (Or Is It Art?) Of Cartooning (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
The cartoon editor of the New Yorker, Bob Mankoff, is collaborating with humor researchers to figure out just what makes a cartoon caption funny. Mankoff discusses their findings, along with his own insights into the art and science of humor.
Pentagon gets Rules of Cyber-War (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
Amidst the recent flurry of news coverage on hacks and hackers, President Barack Obama has signed executive orders that set down the rules-of-war for cyber attacks. James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says that while the ...
Journalist Jose Vargas’ Illegal Immigration Revelation (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
This week, former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas published a story in The New York Times Magazine revealing that he has been living and working illegally in the U.S. Immigration issues aside, the coming out story has raised questions a...
The Press’s Favorite (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman announced his candidacy this week. Political reporter Dave Weigel says that Huntsman's only constituency is the press, and that for a Republican candidate, that's more of a kiss of death than a boon.
The Conventional Wisdom (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
Last week after the Republican presidential debate the conventional wisdom was clear – Michelle Bachmann had transformed herself into a viable candidate for president. Whether or not that’s true, it raised some questions for our guest host Mike Pe...
Page One (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
The New York Times' media editor Bruce Headlam is one of the stars of the new documentary Page One, which follows the Times’s media desk for a year at the paper. Guest host Mike Pesca talks to Headlam about the documentary and about some of the stori...
June 24, 2011 (On The Media: Friday, 24 June 2011)
Where conventional wisdom really comes from; the new rules of cyber-war and the secret science behind the New Yorker's cartoon caption contest
The Echo Chamber Revisited (On The Media: Friday, 17 June 2011)
In 2004, we spoke with law professor Cass Sunstein about the echo chamber effect, the phenomenon by which the explosion of information streams allows us to cherry-pick our media diet so we encounter only news that reinforces our worldview (while evadin...
The Echo Chamber Revisited (On The Media: Friday, 17 June 2011)
In 2004, we spoke with law professor Cass Sunstein about the echo chamber effect, the phenomenon by which the explosion of information streams allows us to cherry-pick our media diet so we encounter only news that reinforces our worldview (while evadin...
Remembering Clarence Clemons
The music world lost a legend last week when Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died at the age of 69. NPR Music's Ann Powers talks about the symbolism of one of rock's great sidemen.
The Secret Science (Or Is It Art?) Of Cartooning
The cartoon editor of the New Yorker, Bob Mankoff, is collaborating with humor researchers to figure out just what makes a cartoon caption funny. Mankoff discusses their findings, along with his own insights into the art and science of humor.
