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Robot classifieds list everything from a bucking bull in a bar to Conan O’Brien’s Pimpbot. Now they can add one more: journalist. The Computing Culture Group at MIT’s Media Lab has created a robotic war computing system. Brooke chats with Director Chris Csikszentmihalyi about his robot reporter.
When scientists reported earlier this year that Antarctica is actually getting cooler, they made sure to remind journalists that their findings do not conflict with global warming theories. Despite this, columnists across the country held up the study as proof that global warming fears are exaggerated. Bob talks to Peter Doran, the author of the Antarctica study, about the frustrating misinterpretations of science by the media.
The recipe for success in the world of teen girl mags has always included a dash of fashion, a pinch of boys, and a heaping glob of diet tips. However, finding the finished product too heavy on low self-esteem, YM has decided to ditch dieting advice in an attempt to take seriously the influence it has over impressionable adolescents. Bob chats with YM Editor-in-Chief Christina Kelly about the magazine’s makeover.
Despite what this title may suggest, OTM is doing a story about an educational film on teens talking about sex. The movie “From an Objective Point of View” is the brainchild of a high school student who won a contest sponsored by a sex-ed non-profit. The flick is just one of a growing number of educational videos that schools throughout the country use in their sex-ed classes, as OTM’s Jessie Graham reports.
A biotechnology company’s announcement that it was the first to (kind of) successfully clone human embryo cells prompted a flurry of media coverage. However, what’s headline news to journalists isn’t necessarily groundbreaking to scientists. Host Brooke Gladstone talks to NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca.
Journalists often have to deal with situations that are disturbing or life-threatening, and those experiences sometimes lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Bob talks to Roger Simpson, Director of the Dart Center for journalists and trauma.
Tom Knudson’s recent series of articles in the Sacramento Bee chastises environmental organizations who produce little or no results while overspending on themselves. Attacking these groups is a departure for the Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter, once hailed a hero to the environmental movement. Bob talks with Knudson about his latest target.
Last week on On the Media, New York Times medical correspondent Dr. Lawrence Altman criticized a company called Abiomed for placing a news blackout on the recent implantation of its newly developed artificial heart. This week, On the Media invites Abiomed to respond to its critics.
