Social Science Research

Drawing on insights from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences, Michelle Baddeley explores contexts in which behavior is driven by the herd. She analyzes the rational vs nonrational and cognitive vs emotional forces involved, and she investigates why herding only sometimes works out well. With new perspectives on followers, leaders, and the pros and cons of herd behavior, Baddeley shines vivid light on human behavior in the context of our ever-more-connected world.

Once a shoestring operation built on plywood sets and Australian rules football, ESPN has evolved into a media colossus. A genius for cross-promotion and its near-mystical rapport with its viewers empower the network to set agendas and create superstars, to curate sports history even as it mainstreams the latest cultural trends. Travis Vogan teams archival research and interviews with an all-star cast to pen the definitive account of how ESPN turned Xs and Os into billions of $$$.

Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy. Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the world, distinguishing between fact and fiction - always a formidable challenge - is now more difficult than ever, as a constant stream of questionable information pours into media outlets. Lewis argues forcefully that while data points and factoids abound, it is much harder to get to the whole truth of complex issues in time for that truth to guide citizens, voters, and decision makers.

Peter Jukes, an award-winning TV crime writer, starts at the beginning: October 2013 and the Old Bailey is gearing up for an eight-month courtroom clash. It's a showdown that will pit tabloid newspaper executives in Rupert Murdoch's News International against the British state. The journalists are accused of phone hacking, corrupting public officials, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. After years of cover up involving News International, the Metropolitan Police, and the government, the judge tells the jury, "British justice is on trial."

What is embryonic stem cell research? Why is it so controversial? What is its relationship to human cloning? Events are moving so fast and biotechnology seems so complicated that many of us don't have an informed opinion about issues that are remaking the human future before our very eyes.

“What happened to the America I thought I knew?” Brokaw writes. “Have we simply wandered off course, but only temporarily? Or have we allowed ourselves to be so divided that we’re easy prey for hijackers who could steer us onto a path to a crash landing? ... I do have some thoughts, original and inspired by others, for our journey into the heart of a new century.”

Plastic surgery has become the answer for many Americans, and in American Plastic sociologist Laurie Essig explores how we arrived at this particular solution. Over the last decade there has been a 465 percent increase in cosmetic work, and we now spend over $12 billion annually on procedures like liposuction, face-lifts, tummy tucks, and boob jobs.

New York Times best-selling author Richard Miniter is an award-winning investigative journalist whose insights have shed light on many of today¹s most vital issues. With Disinformation he takes the popular media to task for the myths they spread about the War on Terror. Miniter has spoken to high-profile sources, sifted through countless information, and traveled the globe to learn that 22 of the most common beliefs about the War on Terror are nothing more than urban legends.

Fake News: Falsehood, Fabrication and Fantasy in journalism examines the causes and consequences of the "fake news" phenomenon now sweeping the world’s media and political debates. Drawing on three decades of research and writing on journalism and news media, the author engages with the fake news phenomenon in accessible, insightful language designed to bring clarity and context to a complex and fast-moving debate.

Dr. Tim Groseclose, a professor of political science and economics at UCLA, has spent years constructing precise quantitative measures of the slant of media outlets. He does this by measuring the political content of news, as a way to measure the PQ, or political quotient, of voters and politicians.

Recounts the story of America’s last great newspaper war between the New York Daily News and the New York Post, as both papers’ long rivalry turned existential amid the rise of digital news. The story is told through the eyes of the reporters, or “runners”, and photographers who fought the war on the ground in cities across America.

In an era when numerous modern media outlets rail about the guilt of their political enemies for speaking untruths, Postgate proves that the media can often credibly be viewed as the party actually guilty of deception. Americans today mistrust the major media more than ever. Postgate will prove that this distrust is richly deserved.

While millions of consumers carry on unaware, powerful companies are racing to gain more knowledge and data than anyone, including any government, has ever had. The goal is to understand consumer behavior and desires, from mundane matters to our most private and intimate affairs. This massive trove of data represents an immense prize for these companies. In economic terms it is one of the most valuable assets on the planet.

The Best Sex Writing series has fundamentally changed the way people think - and what they say - about sexuality. Once again, Rachel Kramer Bussel has collected the year’s most challenging and provocative nonfiction articles on this endlessly evocative subject. The essays here comprise a detailed, direct survey of the contemporary American sexual landscape. Major commentators examine the many roles sex plays in our lives in these literate and lively essays.

Most Americans consider a free press essential to democratic society - either as an independent watchdog against governmental abuse of power or as a wide-open marketplace of ideas. But few understand that far-reaching public policies have shaped the news citizens receive. In an age when mass communication ranges from independent cable channels to the Internet, it is essential to assess these policies and their effects if we want the media to continue fulfilling their role.

Las señales estaban a la vista, no solo en las calles sino en todos y cada uno de los informes de organismos internacionales. No verlas era un acto voluntarioso de ocultamiento de la realidad. Son más que simples dolores de crecimiento asociados a la modernización de Chile, tan exitosa en algunos aspectos, como el combate a la pobreza o la liberalización de la vida social.

Las fake news no son un fenómeno nuevo: los gobiernos, los partidos políticos, los medios de comunicación y las grandes corporaciones - o los monopolios de información equivalentes en cada época - han hecho siempre un uso de ellas. FakeYou expone investigaciones que desmontan los mitos en los que se respalda la ola de legislaciones liberticidas que sufrimos en la actualidad. Este libro se plantea como una herramienta de defensa contra los recortes de las libertades fundamentales y un arma contra las nuevas formas de manipulación, mentira, y falsificación.

Ist die Kritik an die etablierten Medien berechtigt oder Paranoia á la "Lügenpresse"? Die etablierten Medien stecken in einer massiven Glaubwürdigkeitskrise. Teile des Publikums proben den Aufstand, öffentliche und veröffentlichte Meinung driften auseinander. Nicht nur hierzulande, auch in vielen Ländern geraten die angeblichen Leitmedien unter Beschuss. Stein des Anstoßes sind die Inhalte - Stichwort "Lügenpresse". Doch sind Lügen wirklich das Problem?

According to Bernard Goldberg, the media crossed an important line in the 2008 presidential race, moving from their usual unthinking liberal bias to crass partisanship of the crudest kind, practically acting as spin doctors for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. In A Slobbering Love Affair, his most provocative book yet, Goldberg demonstrates how the media launched an unparalleled effort to ensure the election of the man they regarded as the One.

In his blistering new audiobook, Bias in the Booth, sports reporter and commentator Dylan Gwinn takes you inside the sports media spin machine to reveal what they hope you won't notice: The sports media are no different from the news and entertainment media.