Today a gunman drove around West Cumbria, leaving twelve people dead and eleven injured. The places being mentioned in the reports are all part of my childhood and teens- Lamplugh, Whitehaven, Egremont, Gosforth and Seascale. I know one of the victims- maybe more, the full list has yet to be released- and probably met the killer himself, many years ago.
I’ll leave any further comments until I know more.
In one study by Robert Vallone, Lee Ross and Mark Lepper, pro-Palestinian students and pro-Israeli students at Stanford University were shown the same news filmstrips pertaining to the then-recent Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees by Christian Lebanese militia fighters in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. On a number of objective measures, both sides found that these identical news clips were slanted in favor of the other side. Pro-Israeli students reported seeing more anti-Israel references and fewer favorable references to Israel in the news report and pro-Palestinian students reported seeing more anti-Palestinian references, and so on. Both sides said a neutral observer would have a more negative view of their side from viewing the clips, and that the media would have excused the other side where it blamed their side.
It is important to note that the two sides were not asked questions about subjective generalizations about the media coverage as a whole, such as what might be expressed as “I thought that the news has been generally biased against this side of the issue.” Instead, when viewing identical news clips, subjects differed along partisan lines on simple, objective criteria such as the number of references to a given subject. The research suggests the hostile media effect is not just a difference of opinion but a difference of perception.
This effect is interesting to psychologists because it appears to be a reversal of the otherwise pervasive effects of confirmation bias: in this area, people seem to pay more attention to information that contradicts rather than supports their pre-existing views. This is an example of disconfirmation bias.
Wikipedia article with related subjects and suggested follow up reading.
Trees absorb less carbon dioxide as the world warms up.
The ability of forests to soak up man-made carbon dioxide is weakening, according to an analysis of two decades of data from more than 30 sites in the frozen north.
Oil price hits $100 per barrel for the first time.
German cities ban the most polluting cars.
A School in Trafford is about to become one of the country’s ‘greenest’ when solar panels are installed on its roof as part of a renewable energy drive.
Sale Grammar School is being given the panels, which are worth about £20,000, by the Co-operative Group.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse