Announcements

Ashwin Rajadesingan receives Test of Time Award for sarcasm detection research. Read More

  Catch our CME team members at the American Political Science Association (APSA) conference September 5-8!   THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 Cross-Ideological Diverse Sharing Is Motivated, Not Sincere 3:30 to 4:00pm Pennsylvania Convention Center (PCC), Hall A Yujin Kim, University of Texas at Austin   FRIDAY,… Read More

  Catch our CME team members at AEJMC August 8-10!    THURSDAY, AUGUST 8 Consumer Perceptions of Non-Fungible Tokens as Virtual Influencers’ Fan Merchandise 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Franklin Hall 11/4th Scholar-to-Scholar (Poster) Refereed Research Paper Session Jiemin Looi, Texas at Austin; Hong Kong Baptist, Texas at Austin;… Read More

Attending ICA ’24? Don’t miss these presentations from our Center for Media Engagement researchers. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2024 Censorship, Dissent, and Political Expression 10:30 AM.– 11:45 AM Surfer’s Paradise 3 (Star L3) Chair: Josephine Lukito (The University of Texas at Austin) Supporting the Stack: Considerations… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement congratulates Anthony Dudo on his election as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. Each year, AAAS elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science, or its applications, are scientifically or socially distinguished.” Dudo is being honored for his… Read More

In 2023, the Center for Media Engagement worked to improve newsroom practices, help scientists with communication training, challenge students to think about ethical questions from multiple vantage points, and educate policymakers and the public about the effects of social media as well as the spread of propaganda and misinformation via… Read More

  Catch CME researchers at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference, August 7-9! MONDAY, AUGUST 7 Catalyzing Effects: Paradoxical Effects of Attempts to Chill on Journalism 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. EST Independence Salons A-E (M4) Taeyoung Lee, Josephine Lukito, Anita Varma, and… Read More

Attending ICA ’23? Don’t miss these presentations from our Center for Media Engagement researchers. Read More

  Join us for a free panel discussion with graduate worker organizers who will share their insights into labor issues that news coverage often overlooks. RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/higher-ed-strikes-workers-rightsimproving-news-coverage-of-labor-issues-tickets-532211909147 ABOUT THE EVENT: Higher education’s growing labor movement has made local, national, and international headlines lately, in part due to… Read More

Discussion with Iranian journalists and media scholars on what reporting in solidarity with Iranian women means right now. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is thrilled to welcome Ashwin Rajadesingan to the team. Read More

Join us for a workshop on solidarity reporting for democracy, including concrete guidance on priorities and practices for how news organizations can move from declaring themselves “pro-democracy” to putting promises into practice as a public service for voters. Read More

Attending ICA ’22? Don’t miss these presentations from our Center for Media Engagement researchers. Read More

Dr. Samuel Woolley to testify in front of the U.S. House of Representatives. Read More

The Digital Data Conference brings together researchers collecting and analyzing digital media data to discuss the practice and ethics of digital data research. Read More

This talk will highlight one underappreciated aspect: how the Internet has the capacity to improve the human species by increasing pro-social interactions and reducing anti-social ones. Read More

News coverage of trans issues has grown in recent months, with reporting on legislation, protests, and profiles of trans individuals. Yet much of this coverage still silences, re-marginalizes, and alienates trans people. How can journalism do better? Read More

Join us for a panel discussion that explores the connection between journalism and advocacy. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is thrilled to welcome Dr. Craig R. Scott and Dr. Anita Varma to the team. Read More

Join Azeta Hatef and Anita Varma for a discussion of key issues in reporting on Afghanistan. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is thrilled to announce Dr. Josephine (“Jo”) Lukito as a Senior Faculty Research Associate on our Propaganda team. Read More

Join us for our SXSW panel “How Newsrooms Can Help Bridge Divides.” Read More

In this talk, Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt University) draws from current findings regarding political polarization to argue that, as important a social good as democracy is, it is nonetheless possible for citizens to overdo it. Read More

Civic Signals, a project created to explore what makes digital spaces public-friendly, released the results of a two-year-long study, the largest global survey of social media superusers to date. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is proud to host COGSEC, an online conference that will bring together a community of practitioners on the front lines of dealing with and actively combatting the efforts of malign actors online. Read More

The latest issue of Media Ethics Magazine is available online. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is joined by panelists David Fahrenthold, Arthel Neville, and Dan Rather for a conversation on the media's role in 2020 events. Read More

What is the role of journalism and the press in a time when the truth is malleable, fake news is on the rise, and journalistic freedom is being put into question? How can our democratic society find real and sustainable solutions to our problems of disinformation, political polarization, and new… Read More

Attending ICA's virtual conference? CME Researchers will be virtually presenting on a variety of topics. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement welcomes Clio Heslop as a Civic Science Fellow. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement welcomes Dr. Lucy Atkinson and Dr. Lee Ann Kahlor to the team! Read More

((POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE… Stay tuned for more details)) The Center for Media Engagement is thrilled to announce the inaugural Cognitive Security (COGSEC) Conference. The conference will be held at The University of Texas at Austin on August 13-14, 2020 in collaboration with Tim Hwang. The Cognitive Security Conference… Read More

Fake news posts and Twitter trolls were just the beginning. What will happen when misinformation moves from our social media feeds into our everyday lives? Read More

Under the direction of Dr. Samuel Woolley, our propaganda division will focus on how emergent technologies are used in and around global political communication. Read More

1. Build trust by using an “Explain Your Process” box. Audience trust is key to a newsroom’s success. But in this era of “fake news” and fading confidence in the media, it can be difficult to earn. We worked with Trusting News to show that adding a box that helps… Read More

Attending the NCA Convention? Don’t miss these presentations by our CME team members. Thursday, November 14 The Impact of Relationship Quality and Partisan In-group/Out-group Perception on Perceived Interpersonal Competence in Political Conversation 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM, Baltimore Convention Center, Room 343 Although rational-choice models of political behavior provide more sophisticated measurements… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is thrilled to announce new roles for two of our team members. Gina Masullo Chen will move into the Associate Director position, taking on new responsibilities for project oversight, and Melody Avant will act as Assistant Director of Administration, expanding her role in directing human… Read More

Whether political or social, the divisions in our society seem to be growing swiftly and aggressively. And with these divides come new challenges in facilitating the exchange of information. The Center for Media Engagement proposes a new approach to tackling the issue: connective democracy. Supported by a five-year, $2.5 million… Read More

CME researchers are presenting on a variety of topics. Find one that interests you and check it out!   5/24 Friday  Pre-Conference Principles for Elevating Engaged Journalism on Social Media: Results from Practitioner and Scholar Interviews 2:00 PM-3:00 PM Talia Stroud & Tamar Wilner How Should Journalism Academics… Read More

Meet Rachel Moore, a Media Ethics Research Scholar for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Justin Pehoski, a Media Ethics Initiative Graduate Research Associate for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Michaela Urban, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Page Trotter, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Sharmeen Somani, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Grace Holland, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar and Advertising Intern for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Sophia Park, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Spring 2019. Read More

Meet Irie Crenshaw, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Spring 2019. Read More

1. Images and links at the bottom of the page help keep readers on your site.  Getting readers to stay on your site can be a challenge. Our research found a few ways you can encourage them to keep clicking:  Using an image with your links gets more clicks than just text  Putting links… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is thrilled to announce two new additions to our team. Dr. Anthony Dudo and Dr. Scott R. Stroud will expand CME’s reach by taking our research in new directions. Dudo’s research focuses on science communication and Stroud’s work, which includes the Media Ethics… Read More

Meet Rachel Weisenthal, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Justin Pehoski, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Associate for 2018-2019. Read More

Meet Holland Smith, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Michael Sanchez, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Alex Purcell, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Colin Frick, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Colin Frick, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Oluwasemilore Adeoluwa, a Media Ethics Initiative Research Scholar for Fall 2018. Read More

Meet Bailey Sebastian, a Media Ethics Initiative Citizen Scholar for Spring 2018. Read More

Meet Jason Head, a Media Ethics Initiative Citizen Scholar for Spring 2018. Read More

We are happy to announce that Dr. Gina Masullo Chen has been appointed Assistant Director of the Center for Media Engagement. Gina is a former journalist and an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. She is co-editor of Scandal in a Digital… Read More

Meet Morgan Malouf, a Media Ethics Initiative Citizen Scholar for Spring 2018. Read More

Meet Sabrina Stoffels, a Media Ethics Initiative Citizen Scholar for Spring 2018. Read More

Meet Haley Turner, a Media Ethics Initiative Citizen Scholar for Spring 2018. Read More

James Jackson Hayden is a third year student at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in both Communication Studies and Government. He plans to attend law school after completing his undergraduate studies. Jackson is the president of his fraternity and conducts marketing operations for an Austin startup called Loftsmart. Read More

Meet Anna Rose Isbell, a Media Ethics Initiative Citizen Scholar for Spring 2018. Read More

UT Austin Students: Are you interested in an internship in media ethics? Check out the Media Ethics Citizen Scholars Program! Read More

Dr. Talia Stroud, director of the Center for Media Engagement, has been named to the advisory board for SciLine, a new service from the American Association for the Advancement of Science that will provide journalists with high-quality scientific expertise and context. In addition to connecting reporters and editors with… Read More

The Engaging News Project – a news media research and outreach initiative in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin – is expanding and renaming itself the Center for Media Engagement. With additional funding provided by Moody College, the Center for Media Engagement will expand… Read More

Photo courtesy of New Politics Forum. Dr. Talia Stroud, director of the Center for Media Engagement, had the opportunity to lead a talk with Washington Post reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner David Fahrenthold when he visited the University of Texas at Austin on September 23. The… Read More

Want to learn how to make political content go viral? Then vote for our proposal in the SXSW PanelPicker! Click here to vote for our session, titled “Making Politics Popular (Like Puppies).” Voting is open through Friday, August 25.

How do you measure the success of a news site homepage? And what makes for a good news homepage in 2017? Researchers from the Center for Media Engagement will be answering these questions and more during a #MetricShift Twitter chat on Friday, August 11, at 1 p.m. ET. The chat,… Read More

Dr. Talia Stroud, director of the Center for Media Engagement, recently led a webinar on audience engagement for the Local Media Association (LMA). Slides and video of the presentation, “Top 5 Audience Challenges,” are available on the LMA website.

CME Director Talia Stroud speaks during the ISOJ breakfast panel. Center for Media Engagement Director Dr. Talia Stroud was one of five researchers to participate in a breakfast panel during the 18th annual International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), hosted by the Knight Center for Journalism in… Read More

Center for Media Engagement collaborators at the Chattanooga Times Free Press were recently named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Journalists at the newspaper were recognized for their series “The Poverty Puzzle.” We worked with the journalists to measure the Chattanooga community’s response to the series. We found that the… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement conducted a webinar for the Institute for Nonprofit News on best practices for engaging digital audiences. During the webinar, Director Dr. Talia Stroud discussed: Proven techniques for improving engagement How to use them in your newsroom Outcomes of using key engagement tools such as… Read More

Faculty Research Associate Dr. Josh Scacco recently presented Center for Media Engagement’s research on clickbait headlines at the American Copy Editors Society’s national conference. In his research with Dr. Ashley Muddiman, Scacco found that question-based headlines lead to more negative attitudes about the headline and more negative expectation for… Read More

2016 was filled with major news stories, including unprecedented elections, interesting political moves and events that brought the world together. As the year comes to a close, we’ve created an 8-question quiz that will test your audience’s news knowledge. To add this quiz to your website,… Read More

On Friday, November 11, the Center for Media Engagement hosted their first Social Media Summit in partnership with the UT School of Journalism. During the summit, digital news leaders and scholars shared their experiences and lessons from using social media.  The summit’s keynote panel included… Read More

Congratulations to the CME team members who won the Applied Communication Division’s 2016 Bill Eadie Distinguished Award for a Scholarly Article from the National Communication Association! The team received their award at the association’s annual conference in early November. Team members Talia Stroud, Josh Scacco, Ashley Muddiman and Alex Curry… Read More

Research Associate Shannon McGregor presented Center for Media Engagement research at the Online News Association’s annual conference in Denver. Shannon was joined by Scott Smallwood of The Chronicle of Higher Education for the session “What We Really Mean When We Talk About Empathy and Analytics.” For her presentation, Shannon shared… Read More

  There’s no question that social media has forever changed the way news organizations connect with their audiences. But has that change helped or harmed news organizations? And what’s in it for social media companies to get involved with news organizations, such as through Facebook’s Instant Articles or Snapchat… Read More

Research Associate Emily Van Duyn presents CME research. Research Associate Emily Van Duyn recently presented Center for Media Engagement research at the 2016 American Political Science Association Political Communication Preconference in Philadelphia. Van Duyn shared results from our survey of commenters and comment readers, which we released… Read More

This post first appeared on the Center for Media Engagement’s Medium page In what can feel like a never-ending list of issues facing the news industry, one issue seems to divide news organizations more than others: What do we do about Millennials?… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement recently joined Gatehouse Media and Viafoura on a webinar to share what it takes to increase engagement, build a civil community and win in the battle against trolls. Some of the topics discussed during the webinar include: How to leverage the supporting research to… Read More

Photo: Girl waiting for the train by Toshihiro Gamo on Flickr. This post was written by CME Director Dr. Talia Stroud and first appeared on the Knight Foundation’s blog.  Many findings about the political and news habits of women… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement’s paper, “Like, recommend, or respect? Altering political behavior in news comment sections,” has been published in the latest edition of the New Media & Society academic journal. In the paper, researchers Talia Stroud, Ashley Muddiman and Josh Scacco share their research… Read More

Josh Scacco shares CME research at the pre-ISOJ workshop. Photo courtesy of the Knight Center. The Center for Media Engagement’s Josh Scacco and Katie Steiner, along with ProPublica’s Amanda Zamora, led a workshop on audience engagement as part of the 17th annual International Symposium on Online… Read More

Dr. Talia Stroud discusses our latest report on commenters and comment readers at the SXSW Interactive Festival. CME Director Dr. Talia Stroud was part of a panel on improving comment sections at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The other panelists were… Read More

Participants listen to one another at the News Tools Workshop in Austin, TX. In February, the Center for Media Engagement hosted its third workshop – the first to focus on news tools. Topics ranged from what audience engagement tools worked and didn’t work for news organizations,… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement has developed a new WordPress plugin that allows users to customize the buttons on their websites, including adding a “Respect” button. With Engaging Buttons, you can design and configure alternatives to the “Like” button, which, we have found, may not always be appropriate. Read More

The Center for Media Engagement is featured twice in Nieman Lab’s list of top 10 digital news research articles of 2015. For the list, a range of scholars, digital gurus and journalists across the county were polled on what they thought was the best research of the year… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement was recently selected for one of more than 500 sessions at the 2016 SXSW Interactive conference, taking place March 11-15 in Austin, Texas. Our panel, “Comments Are Terrible – But They Don’t Have to Be,” will provide attendees tips on improving their interactive spaces — comments and… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement has begun conducting research on the content and effects of different types of headlines. As the first part of our research efforts, we have a new report that shares what we know about the functions and types of headlines, their content and use in news… Read More

On Oct. 6, the Center for Media Engagement took part in the second News Engagement Day, a day devoted to raising awareness about the importance of news engagement. News Engagement Day was created by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC) in an effort… Read More

Center for Media Engagement team members have been busy the past couple months traveling across the country to present at various conferences. Research Associate Alex Curry presented at the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference in San Francisco. Director Dr. Talia Stroud presented our research on… Read More

When Facebook makes a change, everyone has an opinion. That was definitely the case when Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media giant would begin testing out a “Dislike” button. The reasoning behind the decision, according to Zuckerberg,… Read More

There is a significant increase in page views when people browse a news website with a contemporary design compared to a website with a classic design, according to a new report from the Center for Media Engagement. People also learn more from the articles when they view… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement recently gave a training presentation to GateHouse Media editors on best practices for managing comment sections. During the training, research associate Alex Curry shared the latest comment section trends in the news industry, as well as some of… Read More

Philly.com, the website for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, recently made changes to its comments section that were inspired, in part, by the Center for Media Engagement. Based on our research on journalists’ involvement in comments, Philly.com… Read More

For its second News Engagement Workshop, the Center for Media Engagement brought together a group of digital news leaders including, from left: Jennifer Carroll, Gannett Digital; Barry Osborne, The Denver Post; Alex Quinn, e.thePeople; Wright Bryan, NPR; Dr. Natalie Stroud, Center for Media Engagement; Todd Olmstead, The… Read More

Many news websites have online polls on their sites. Although polls can be engaging for site visitors, there are downsides. Specifically, some site visitors may believe that online poll results are accurate reflections of public opinion when, in fact, they are not. Quizzes, however, help participants learn more and increase… Read More

In a recent report, the Center for Media Engagement examined a representative sample of 155 newspaper and television news websites to understand how they were using social media buttons, comment sections, online polls, lists of hyperlinks, and mobile versions. The report shows that: Over 95% of news sites allow… Read More

The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization Public Agenda has begun using a version of the “Respect” button, developed by the Center for Media Engagement. On Public Agenda’s blog, if you highlight text anywhere in a post, or see the ReadrBoard symbol, a box appears. In that box, readers… Read More

CME Director Natalie Stroud speaks at the Global Roundup Breakfast at the 2014 International Symposium on Online Journalism. In early April, Center for Media Engagement Director Natalie Stroud presented some of the project’s findings at the International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), held at the University… Read More

The Nieman Journalism Lab covered featured recent research from the Center for Media Engagement on how television and news organizations use interactive features on their websites... Read More

The Texas Tribune has begun using the “Respect” button on their new site, TribTalk. TribTalk is a digital forum for dialogue, featured submitted commentary and opinion pieces. The “Respect” button is being used in the site’s comment section. To learn more about TribTalk using the… Read More

A new report from the Center for Media Engagement and the Solutions Journalism Network illustrates that solutions-based journalism is an effective journalistic tool that benefits both readers and news organizations. Solutions journalism reports about responses to entrenched social problems. It focuses not just on what may be working, but how and why it appears… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement and the National Institute for Civil Discourse have teamed up on a literature review that presents an overview of what the organizations already know about online discussion, and helps them begin to think about how to best promote civil discourse and online engagement. Read More

In late September, Center for Media Engagement Director Natalie Stroud and Developer John Macon presented the team’s new Create a Quiz feature at the Online News Association’s 2014 Conference in Chicago. During their presentation, the team demonstrated the “Create a Quiz” tool, which allows newsrooms to create multiple choice… Read More

On Oct. 7, the Center for Media Engagement took part in the inaugural National News Engagement Day, a day devoted to raising awareness about the importance of news engagement. National News Engagement Day was created by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (AEJMC)… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement’s research on civility and quality discussion in comment sections will be released soon in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. In the article, “Changing Deliberative Norms on News Organizations’ Facebook Sites,” the CME team shares its research finding that news organizations can… Read More

The Center for Media Engagement has released a progress report on its work to find new approaches to comment moderation. For three months, CME research associate Arielle Cardona attempted to code for incivility within online news comments in new ways –- using paid Workers in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, undergraduate… Read More

The Columbia Journalism Review recently published an in-depth Q&A with Center for Media Engagement Director Dr. Talia Stroud. In the Q&A, Stroud provides background on the Center for Media Engagement, as well as shares some of the research we’re currently working on. Read the full interview on… Read More

There are several benefits – and limits — to using a three-column comment section as opposed to using a traditional one-column section, according to a new report by the Center for Media Engagement. The group’s research found that study participants rated a three-column comment section more favorably than the… Read More

For its second News Engagement Workshop, the Center for Media Engagement brought together a group of digital news leaders including, from left: Jennifer Carroll, Gannett Digital; Barry Osborne, The Denver Post; Alex Quinn, e.thePeople; Wright Bryan, NPR; Dr. Natalie Stroud, Center for Media Engagement; Todd Olmstead, The… Read More

Photo courtesy of iStock. Young people today are reluctant to discuss politics with people who disagree with them and view online spaces as somewhat treacherous for interacting politically, according to a new report from the Center for Media Engagement (CME) and the National… Read More

Rolf Dyrnes Svendsen of NxtMedia in Norway presents during the workshop. During this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival, the Center for Media Engagement hosted the World Association of Newspapers and Newspaper Publishers (WAN-IFRA) for a workshop on media innovation at the University of Texas… Read More

In honor of Tax Day, which was April 15, the Center for Media Engagement put together a 4-questions quiz using our “Create a Quiz” tool. The quiz featured a variety of questions that tested readers’ knowledge of taxes, as well as made Tax Day stories a bit… Read More

Research Associate Josh Scacco presents CME research at the International Symposium on Online Journalism. The Center for Media Engagement’s paper, “Digital Divisions: Organizational Gatekeeping Practices” was recently published in the 2015 edition of the International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) academic journal. Read More

Digital news leaders from across the country came to Austin, Texas for the Engaging News Workshop. Ten digital news innovators recently came together to visit about current practices and future possibilities at a workshop hosted by the Center for Media Engagement. A report summarizing the workshop was… Read More