Shorenstein Report: Election News Coverage Failed the Voters

Trump image/Shorenstein Center Press release

Analyzing news coverage of the recent general election, a new report from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy concludes that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump received coverage that was overwhelmingly negative in tone and extremely light on policy. In my view, it also implies that the structure of news organizations and the definition of “news” allowed Trump to hornswoggle reporters and editors as they tried to make sense of him and his candidacy.

The report entitled “News Coverage of the 2016 General Election: How the Press Failed the Voters,” was released today. It suggests that negativity is part of a pattern in place since the 1980s and is not limited to election coverage. “A healthy dose of negativity is unquestionably a good thing,” according Thomas Patterson, the study’s author, in a press release. “Yet an incessant stream of criticism has a corrosive effect. It needlessly erodes trust in political leaders and institutions and undermines confidence in government and policy,” resulting in a media environment full of false equivalencies that can mislead voters about the choices they face.

The study found that, on topics relating to the candidates’ fitness for office, Clinton and Trump’s coverage was virtually identical in terms of its negative tone. “Were the allegations surrounding Clinton of the same order of magnitude as those surrounding Trump?” asks Patterson. “It’s a question that political reporters made no serious effort to answer during the 2016 campaign.”

Trump has accused the media of bias against him and his opponents charge that he received an inordinate amount of coverage. According the report, When asked to explain their focus on Trump, journalists said that he made himself readily available to the press.^[13] But “availability has never been the standard of candidate coverage. If that were so, third-party candidates and also-rans would dominate coverage. They hunger for news exposure.”

Rather, according to the report, “Trump’s dominant presence in the news stemmed from the fact that his words and actions were ideally suited to journalists’ story needs” That is, “news” is generally defined as information that is different or unusual, impacts a lot of people– “better yet when laced with conflict and outrage.” .Trump delivered that type of material by the cart load. Both nominees tweeted heavily during the campaign but journalists monitored his tweets more closely. Both nominees delivered speech after speech on the campaign trail but journalists followed his speeches more intently. Trump met journalists’ story needs as no other presidential nominee in modern times.”
This is the final report of a multi-part research series analyzing news coverage of candidates and issues during the 2016 presidential election. The study tracks news coverage from the second week of August 2016 to the day before Election Day.

This Shorenstein Center study is based on an analysis of news reports by ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. The study’s data were provided by Media Tenor, a firm that specializes in the content analysis of news coverage. The research was partially funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Read the full report.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is an author, journalist and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and digital media firm in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Got a question for Cambridge Councillor Cheung?

Frances Yun, founder of a Harvard/MIT startup called “Six Questions” invites Cantabrigians to suggest queries for ” the fantastically accomplished” third-term Cambridge City Councillor Leland Cheung (left)

Cheung. the first Asian-American to serve on the Council, will answer six questions–submitted by Friday, January 16 and selected by a variety of methods– on video. The video will be posted at “Six Questions” within three days.

According to its Website, Six Questions was founded in 2013 to provide “a platform for community-driven Q&A events that allows individuals to engage the public and connect in an authentic, personal way. Every week, Six Questions features a different expert and crowd-source questions from the public.”

For more information or to submit questions, please go to:

http://www.sixquestions.co/i/leland-cheung-cambridge-city-councillor.

–Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and digital marketing firm.

Cambridge’s VKW Co. exchanges work for donations to Philippine storm relief

Very pleased to spread the word that Leo von Wendorff, a colleague of ours at the Cambridge Innovation Center whose business is largely based in the Philippines.will, for one month, donate all proceeds from his Virtual Knowledge Worker (VKW) business to victims of Super-Typhoon Haiya.

Leo Von Wendorff, CEO, VKW

Leo writes:

Dear Friends of VKW-

Cities and Towns were destroyed.

Lives were lost.

Thousands may still be missing.

Together with you

We want to help

Recreate Communities

Let’s rebuild their Lives!

For one month, VKW will offer services in return for donations to the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan via the Philippine Red Cross. The company will give 100 percent of the proceeds to the relief effort. “Let us take on your time-consuming and mundane tasks, knowing that your donation will help rebuild the lives of those affected by this terrible tragedy,” Wendorff says.

Projects, work orders or task requests should be submitted to Typhoon@VKWinc.com or (617) 299-1176 by December 7, 2013.

Typical tasks might include:

Data Entry, such as data entry of all your business cards
Appointment settings for your business or personal event
Execute a social media and telemarketing campaign
Lead mining
Internet research

All task and pledges are subject to review are available depending on available, according to Wendorff.

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is managing director of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA. HarrisCom specializes in media relations and content services for clients in health, science, technology, energy and education, worldwide.

Three Boston Startups Win Biotech Tuesday Innovation Awards

Boston area startups Cocoon Biotech, Riparian Pharmaceuticals, Cellanyx Diagnostics, and DavosPharma were awarded$22K in funds and in-kind services at an innovation competition held by Biotech Tuesday, a Cambridge-based networking organization for life science professionals.

left-to-right : Execs from EMD Serono, Novartis and Lab Central

At an event on November 19th event, executives from EMD Serono, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and LabCentral chose the winning startup pitches from among five finalists’ presentations. The finalists were selected from an initial field of thirteen online entries based, in part, on online feedback from BiotechTuesday members. The three winners were all therapeutics and diagnostics startups proposing solutions to challenging medical problems.

Cocoon Biotech, Inc., led by CEO and founder Ailis Tweed-Kent, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital won the $5000 EMD Serono Innovation Award. Cocoon Biotech is developing a silk-based gel for injection into the joint to provide long lasting joint support and lubrication in patients with osteoarthritis. EMD Serono is the biopharmaceutical subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a global pharmaceutical and chemical group.

Riparian Pharmaceuticals, led by Will Adam, Chief Scientific Officer and President, won both the $10,000 in-kind Novartis Innovation Award and the $3000 in-kind Pharmatek Innovation Award. Riparian Pharmaceuticals is focused on therapeutics that induce an anti-inflammatory response in cells to address diseases such as atherosclerosis. Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc. discovers and develops new and innovative medicines. Pharmatek Laboratories, Inc. is a premier pharmaceutical chemistry development and manufacturing organization supporting the pharmaceutical & biotechnology industries.

Cellanyx Diagnostics, led by Co-Founder and CEO Ashok Chander, won the $4000 in-kind LabCentral Innovation Award. Cellanyx is developing a prostate cancer diagnostic based on culturing tumor biopsy cells that promises to be much more accurate than current diagnostics. LabCentral provides fully functional lab space, permits, waste handling, plus all reasonably common lab equipment for bioresearch.

In addition to awarding startups, the event also acknowledged the contribution of life science products and services in enabling cutting edge research for new therapeutics. DavosPharma won the Most Innovative Product or Service Award in recognition of its Anthem-GenTox product. This product offers scientists a high throughput genotoxicity assay based on human cells with greatly improved accuracy over conventional methods.

“This was Biotech Tuesday’s first innovation competition–but by no means its last, “said BioTechTuesday Co-Founder Seth Taylor, who organizes BiotechTuesday and served as master of ceremonies for the event.” The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly in favor of the competition,” Taylor said. “We look forward to continuing our efforts to engage our broad community of life science professionals in supporting innovators.”

The competition took place at District Hall, a new event space at 75 Northern Avenue in the Boston Seaport District.

–Anita Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and content expert based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is published by the Harris Communications Group, a PR and marketing firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square. HarrisCom offers writing and content services for clients in healthcare, life sciences, biotech, energy and the environment. Full disclosure: HarrisCom handled media outreach for the event as a probono sponsor.

Latitude News/PRX Launch US/International Podcast Series

Cambridge startup Latitude News and Public Radio Exchange (PRX) have launched a podcast series aimed at bringing global stories with local importance to new audiences.

Latitude was founded earlier this year by veteran BBC producer Maria Balinska to bring “a new brand of global storytelling connects on an emotional level to audiences who are curious about the world,” Balinka said. Its journalists–based in Cambridge and abroad, use a Website, social media and podcasts to crowdsource stories that connect Americans with the world.

PRX operates public radio’s largest distribution marketplace, offering thousands of audio stories for broadcast and digital use. Signature PRX programs include the Moth Radio Hour, RadioLab, This American Life, KCRW Music Mine and the Public Radio Player.

Under an agreement announced earlier this week, Latitude will produce 12 podcasts and broadcast segments for PRX showcasing a distinctive editorial style that links Americans to the rest of the world.

The first podcasts launched this week; one looks at why the US faces a shortage of cod and Norway does not; the other examines the role that one US preacher has played in the anti-gay movement in Uganda.

The Latitude News podcasts are hosted by award-winning journalist Daniel Moulthorp.

Moulthorp is co-founder of The Civic Commons. He is also a former program host of 90.3 WCPN’s Sound of Ideas and co-author, with Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, of the best selling book Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers (The New Press, 2005).

John Barth, Managing Director of PRX, said, “The extension of Latitude News to podcasts and broadcast is a natural step as PRX reaches engaged audiences hungry for more meaningful international stories.”

“We’re thrilled to work with PRX to illustrate how our new brand of global storytelling connects on an emotional level to audiences who are curious about the world,” Balinska said.

The podcasts and segments are made possible by a grant to PRX by the Open Society Foundations aimed at expanding global storytelling for American audiences.

http://www.prx.org/group_accounts/142068-latitudenews

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group–an-award-winning strategic communications firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

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Companies Receive $1.3 M in MA-Israeli Collaboration Grants

Four Massachusetts-Israeli business collaborations have received a total of $1.3M in grant funding under the Massachusetts-Israel Innovation Partnership (MIIP)–a formal collaboration between the State of Israel and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to encourage and support innovation and entrepreneurship between Massachusetts’ and Israel’s life sciences, clean energy and technology sectors.

The grants were announced yesterday at the 2012 BIO International Convention in Boston by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Israeli Chief Scientist Avi Hasson, of MATIMOP, the Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.

The four winning projects are:

SBH Sciences (Natick) and Improdia (Israel) will work together toward the development and manufacture of a chronic inflammation-dependent immunosuppression prognostic kit. SBH will receive $184,000 from the Center and Improdia will receive $202,000 from Israel’s OCS.SBH Sciences is a discovery and preclinical contract research organization with expertise in production and analysis of cytokines and biomarkers. Improdia is a life science start-up focused on implementing novel biomarkers for immune system modulating therapies– using simple blood tests for patients with chronic disease.

Automated Medical Instruments (AMI – Needham) and STI Lasers (Israel) will develop new technology involving radio frequency energy to perform circumferential ablation of the pulmonary veins. AMI will receive $116,000 from the Center and STI Lasers will receive $110,000 from OCS. AMI is a start-up medical device company developing novel technology to perform atrial fibrillation treatment. STI Lasers is a medical device company specializing in laser cutting, micromachining and finishing of miniature metal components.“AMI is developing the CircumBlator™, to offer a reliable and curative, minimally invasive treatment for millions of patients with atrial fibrillation, a disease that causes over 20 percent of strokes and untold misery,” said Martin Sklar, President and CEO of Automated Medical Instruments.

Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. (North Billerica) and Check-Cap (Israel) will develop a novel 3-D imaging capsule that can be used to screen for polyps and lesions associated with colorectal cancer. Lantheus will receive $300,000 from MTC and Check-Cap has been selected to receive at least an equal amount from OCS. Lantheus develops, manufactures and distributes innovative diagnostic imaging agents. Check Cap is a medical device company located in Mount Carmel, Israel with a “breakthrough” solution for Colorectal Cancer Screening. “As a global leader in diagnostic imaging, Lantheus is dedicated to providing physicians with breakthrough new tools to enhance patient care. Teaming up with Check-Cap to develop and manufacture a cutting-edge imaging capsule further advances this ongoing commitment,” said Don Kiepert, President and CEO, Lantheus Medical Imaging.

FloDesign Sonics (Wilbraham) and Transbiodiesel (Israel) will use FloDesign’s acoustic molecule separation technology to separate oil that can be used to create fuel from Transbiodiesel’s oil-generating algae. FloDesign Sonics will receive $55,000 from MassCEC and Transbiodiesel will receive $20,958 from OCS. FloDesign Sonics uses a novel ultrasonic acoustophoretic separation technology developed at Western New England University for a more efficient approach to wastewater treatment and micro-algae harvesting for biofuels. Transbiodiesel is a start- up company with a novel technology for producing biodiesel fuels from a variety of oils

The MIIP program was first announced in June 2011 at the BIO International Convention in Washington, D.C. and the first joint solicitation for proposals was launched in September 2011 by MATIMOP on the Israeli side and by the three participating Massachusetts agencies: the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC). Total funding for the current projects is approximately $3m.

The partnership came as a result of a 2011 trade mission in which Governor Patrick and a coalition of Massachusetts business executives and senior government officials explored growth opportunities of common interest for Massachusetts’ and Israel’s innovation industries. During that mission Governor Patrick and Shalom Simhon, Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, signing on behalf of their respective states, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Jerusalem. MIIP was established to implement the MOU’s framework.

Massachusetts is the first U.S. state to establish a significant industrial R&D program with the State of Israel, according to a press release issued yesterday by Patrick’s office.

Today there are nearly 100 companies with Israeli founders or Israeli-licensed technologies in Massachusetts, according to the release. In 2009, these companies employed nearly 6,000 people and generated $2.4 billion in direct revenue for the state. Local firms exported over $180 million worth of goods to Israel in 2009. Home to 377 hospitals and 37,000 practicing physicians, Israel is an important market for health-related technologies.

The New England-Israel Business Council, the US-Israel Science and Technology Foundation, the Government of Israel Economic Mission to North America, the Consulate General of Israel to New England and MOITI have all played an important role in promoting the program, according to the release.

–Anita M. Harris

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning strategic public relations, marketing communications and thought leadership firm in Cambridge, MA.