In 2019, the percentage of Americans who donated to charity was at an all-time low. To understand why, it is essential to first ascertain the dominant cultural norms and narratives around charitable giving in the United States. Mass media play a powerful role in shaping our social norms, attitudes, and behavior… More
In our second study with Define American, we found that TV shows with nuanced immigrant characters and immigration storylines can shift attitudes and inspire people to real-life action. Viewers who saw the immigrant storylines had more inclusive attitudes towards immigrants, greater comfort meeting undocumented people and opposition to criminalizing undocumented… More
Our research team worked with the advocacy organization Color of Change on this edifying new study that looked at depictions of the U.S. criminal justice system on American television. Among the finding were that the crime TV genre advances distorted representations of crime, justice, race and gender. For people of… More
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s grant to KCRW in 2015 gave the Los Angeles-based public radio station the means to expand their coverage of underserved and vulnerable populations in Southern California. As outside evaluators, our Media Impact Project examined the expanding influence and growth of KCRW’s programming through three new… More
Do liberals enjoy the same TV shows as conservatives? Do they experience similar emotions while viewing their favorite shows? Our new study looks for connections between media diets and political beliefs, tracking changes from 2008 to 2018. We surveyed a national audience for their views on issues such as guns,… More
In a major initiative to change the way Americans see Africa, the Lear Center’s Media Impact Project has released a seminal report that reveals that Americans seldom see mentions of Africa or Africans on popular television shows or in the news; and when they do, the portrayals are often negative… More
This analysis of Twitter sentiment in the wake of news reports that President Donald J. Trump had characterized some African nations as “shithole countries” reveals a substantial 66% increase in negative tweets about Trump, and a dramatic increase of over 3,000% in the volume of mentions of Africa. However, there… More
This report presents a media content analysis conducted by the Lear Center’s Media Impact Project in collaboration with Define American, a nonprofit media and culture organization, to investigate two research questions: 1. How are immigrants and immigration issues depicted on entertainment television? 2. How do these depictions compare with the reality of the immigrant experience?… More
Read this preliminary work from Kathleen Hall Jamieson, delivered in March 2018 for her Ev Rogers Award Colloquium, which evolved into her incendiary new book, “Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President—What We Don’t, Can’t, and Do Know.” UPDATES: Dr. Jamieson discusses her new book with the… More
For the last three years, journalists, producers, designers and engineers from FRONTLINE and Emblematic Group have worked together to produce two VR experiences that each deploy the power of fully immersive, room-scale VR in the service of deeply reported narrative journalism. As part of the initiative, the Lear Center’s Media Impact Project conducted testing exploring… More