Center for Communication & Civic Renewal
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cccr.bsky.social
Center for Communication & Civic Renewal
@cccr.bsky.social
CCCR is an interdisciplinary research center at UW-Madison that aims to understand public opinion & the broad political communication ecology of WI & beyond through social science methods. Engaged scholarship, rooted in democracy. https://cccr.wisc.edu
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Stumbled across this cool interactive tool on media use & trust from Pew:

www.pewresearch.org/journalism/f...
News Media Tracker
Pew Research Center’s News Media Tracker shows data on Americans’ awareness of, use of and trust in 30 major news sources to map out part of the U.S. media ecosystem.
www.pewresearch.org
December 30, 2025 at 9:17 PM
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In 2025 the United States ranked 57 world wide on press freedom. That is a pretty bad score. It was based on 2024 data, before Trump took office.

One can hardly imagine what the 2026 score and ranking will be like.

#pressfreedom
December 30, 2025 at 9:18 PM
CCCRers @nathankalmoe.bsky.social & @prowag.bsky.social have a post on party convention delegates in Tusk today! Thanks to @smotus.bsky.social for the guest post & @bcburden.bsky.social for organizing the survey!

Below is a 🧵 w/ more details from the report. 1/ smotus.substack.com/p/republican...
Republican and Democratic convention delegates agree on strategy and not much else
A look at a new survey on party convention delegates
smotus.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
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Thanks for letting us crash the party, Seth! cc: @nathankalmoe.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 1:53 PM
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Full survey report here:
cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...
cccr.wisc.edu
December 17, 2025 at 2:43 PM
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Nice guest post up at Tusk from @nathankalmoe.bsky.social and @prowag.bsky.social on the results of a @bcburden.bsky.social survey of 2024 national convention delegates from both parties.
smotus.substack.com/p/republican...
Republican and Democratic convention delegates agree on strategy and not much else
A look at a new survey on party convention delegates
smotus.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:43 PM
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Here's something I post from time to time. My answer to a reader who asked me: what could journalists do NOW to break with some of their more corrosive habits.
June 12, 2025 at 3:55 PM
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The full write up is here:

Was It Something The Democrats Said?
A Response to Third Way’s Political Language Memo

open.substack.com/pub/dcinboxi...
August 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
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The only thing I can say about this paragraph is read it. Sit with it. Read it again. @michaelharriot.bsky.social
August 22, 2025 at 4:20 AM
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I'm closely interviewed for this Nieman Lab report that discusses how rural areas will be affected by loss of funding for local NPR reporting. We must not underestimate the importance of equal access to information - we're about to witness a seismic ideological shift in American sense of "place."
With Cuts to Federal Funding, How Will Public Media in the U.S. Survive? - Nieman Reports
With cuts to federal funding, how will public media in the U.S. survive? Gabe Bullard writes, "The closure of the CPB will hurt NPR and PBS, but the most immediate and devastating blow will be to the ...
niemanreports.org
August 12, 2025 at 4:07 PM
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We just learned we are the most visited nonprofit news site in the U.S.
In markets large and small, these nonprofit news organizations are achieving traffic numbers that many commercial outlets would envy. Here’s our first monthly ranking of the top 25 nonprofit news sites in the United States. buff.ly/8yo3BfO
Nonprofit news sites are built to generate impact — but these are also generating audiences
In markets large and small, these nonprofit news organizations are achieving traffic numbers that many commercial outlets would envy. Here's our first monthly ranking of the top 25 nonprofit news…
www.niemanlab.org
July 29, 2025 at 11:05 PM
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How effective are user corrections on social media, and does adding a link to a fact check improve effectiveness?

In piece led by @sachaltay.bsky.social we find corrections have small effects, adding a fact-check unlikely to make them more effective misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/the-... 1/6
July 23, 2025 at 1:03 PM
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[deep sigh]

I legitimately wonder where the senior managers pushing LLM tools get the notion that they will save time. Personal experience says it's the equivalent of double checking the work of a particularly incompetent work-study student.

Such is management disconnect from the work being done.
Reporter: The FDA has a new AI tool that's intended to speed up drug approvals. But several FDA employees say the new AI helper is making up studies that do not exist. One FDA employee telling us, 'Anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable. It hallucinates confidently'
July 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM
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Copy of my book just arrived in the mail today! Feels unreal. You can preorder it here: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
July 21, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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Missouri AG: Any AI That Doesn’t Praise Donald Trump Might Be “Consumer Fraud” (No, Really)

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey just sent threatening letters to Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta, claiming their AI chatbots violated Missouri's consumer protection laws. The crime? When asked…
Missouri AG: Any AI That Doesn’t Praise Donald Trump Might Be “Consumer Fraud” (No, Really)
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey just sent threatening letters to Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta, claiming their AI chatbots violated Missouri's consumer protection laws. The crime? When asked to rank presidents on antisemitism, some of the AIs had the temerity to suggest Donald Trump might not be great on that front. Yes, you read that right. A sitting state attorney general is using the power of his office to threaten tech companies because their AIs expressed opinions about Trump that he disagrees with.
www.techdirt.com
July 10, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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When NPR left Twitter, traffic dropped by only a single percentage point.

niemanreports.org/npr-twitter-...
July 9, 2025 at 6:24 PM
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Although “people in China are acutely conscious of the limits of permissible speech,” Lavender Au writes, Chinese students living in the United States never expected to be contending with similar worries:
For Chinese Students, America Feels Just Like Home
But not in a good way.
bit.ly
July 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM
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Musk's DOGE efforts to undermine foreign aid will lead to the deaths of tens of millions unless reversed. wapo.st/4684PQL
USAID cuts may cause 14 million more deaths in next five years, study says
The analysis, published in the Lancet, estimates the agency’s programs saved 91 million lives worldwide over two decades, playing a vital role in global health.
wapo.st
July 1, 2025 at 3:08 PM
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Note that Trump's cuts to university research are his least supported policy, @mayasen.bsky.social. Suggests a potentially broad coalition in support of university research, if universities can effectively make this argument.
June 17, 2025 at 5:53 PM
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Enjoy our report from wave 2 of our three wave election panel study. This report highlights the importance of information diets and the country’s preferences in this current moment. Stay tuned for wave 3 at the end of summer!
🚨 CCCR has a new survey report out today! 🚨

"100 Days Under Trump: Public Reactions to Attacks on American Governance & Institutions"

The report draws on our Apr/May YouGov panel survey of US adults, following our Oct 2024 survey w/ recontacts + a sample refresh. 1/
cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...
June 17, 2025 at 4:15 PM