A new book by UC Davis political scientist Amber Boydstun explains why some events drive media storms, an explosion of sustained media coverage, and why other events, even very similar ones, don’t.
Why do some events catch fire in the news, producing a media storm, while many similar events go all but unnoticed? This Element uses a fire triangle analogy to explain the necessary conditions of media storms. The “heat” is the spark: a dramatic event or discovery.
Anissa Joseph, a Ph.D. candidate in political science, is the inaugural recipient of the Walter J. Stone Endowed Fellowship, which provides a $6,000 summer stipend to advance her research.
In her course “America Decides,” Amber Boydstun, a professor of political science, is taking a different approach to teaching electoral politics that helps students to unpack the emotions bound up with their own or each other’s politics.
