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Invasive cane toads like this one have fanned out across Australia, killing numerous predators in their wake, including freshwater crocodiles. Joshua Prieto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption

To save wild crocodiles in Australia, scientists gave them food poisoning

August 16, 2024 • Freshwater crocodiles die every year in Australia from eating poisonous cane toads that humans introduced to the continent. Now scientists have found a way to teach the crocs to avoid the toxic toads.

Saving freshwater crocodiles — by teaching them to not eat poisonous toads

Conservation biologist Gliselle Marin carefully untangles a bat from a net in Belize during the annual Bat-a-thon. Her fanny pack is decorated with printed bats. Luis Echeverría for NPR hide caption

Goats and Soda

This scientist has a bat tat and earrings. she says there's a lot to learn from bats.

August 12, 2024 • Gliselle Marin joins the “Bat-a-thon,” a group of 80-some bat researchers who converge on Belize each year to study these winged mammals.

A scientist in Belize hopes bats can galvanize locals to protect their forests

Researchers glued cameras and tracking instruments to small pieces of neoprene, that they then glued to the fur of the sea lions Nathan Angelakis hide caption

Scientists attach video cameras to sea lions to map the ocean floor

August 9, 2024 • How do you study unmapped areas of the ocean and identify critical habitat for an endangered species? You include the study animal in the scientific process! Researchers from the University of Adelaide fitted endangered Australian sea lions with cameras and tracking devices to better understand where they spent their time. The information could help scientists protect critical sea lion habitat and could give researchers a new tool for mapping the ocean.

"Everything that we are as human beings is in our brain," Dr. Theodore Schwartz says. Brian Marcus /Penguin Randomhouse hide caption

Health Care

For this brain surgeon, the operating room is 'the ultimate in mindful meditation'.

August 5, 2024 • Dr. Theodore Schwartz has been treating neurological illnesses for nearly 30 years. He says being a brain surgeon requires steady hands — and a strong bladder. His new book is Gray Matters.

New blood tests that help detect Alzheimer's disease are opening up a new era in diagnosis and treatment, doctors say. Marcus Brandt/picture alliance/Getty Images hide caption

Shots - Health News

New blood tests can help diagnose alzheimer's. are doctors ready for what's next.

August 2, 2024 • A new generation of blood tests can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease. But many doctors don’t yet know how to use them.

Alzheimer's blood tests

Some researchers say the African coral tree has a racial slur embedded in its name. This month, scientists at an international meeting voted to have that epithet removed. tree-species/Flickr hide caption

Some plant names can be racist. Scientists are looking to rename them

July 31, 2024 • An international group of researchers has voted to modify the scientific names of more than 200 plant species whose names carry a derogatory word.

Researchers are revising botanical names to address troubling connotations

A key protein called Reelin may help stave off Alzheimer's disease, according to a growing body of research. GSO Images/The Image Bank/Getty Images hide caption

A protein called Reelin keeps popping up in brains that resist aging and Alzheimer’s

July 29, 2024 • Early in life, the protein Reelin helps assemble the brain. Later on, it appears to protect the organ from Alzheimer’s and other threats to memory and thinking.

Alzheimer's resilience

There are over eight hundred species of leeches, but researchers estimate that only ten percent of all leeches are terrestrial. Auscape/Contributor/Getty Images hide caption

We hate to tell you this, but there are leeches that can jump

July 29, 2024 • Generally, we at Short Wave are open-minded to the creepies and the crawlies, but even we must admit that leeches are already the stuff of nightmares. They lurk in water. They drink blood. There are over 800 different species of them. And now, as scientists have confirmed ... at least some of them can jump!

Two chimpanzees groom each other — a behavior that can involve several gestures. Anup Shah/Getty Images hide caption

What chimpanzee gestures reveal about human communication

July 26, 2024 • Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives. But does much of their communication resembles ours? According to a new study published earlier this week in the journal Current Biology , chimpanzees gesture back-and-forth in a similar way to how humans take turns speaking. The research presents an intriguing possibility that this style of communication may have evolved before humans split off from great apes, and tells researchers more about how turn-taking evolved.

Project RattleCam lets people observe rattlesnakes with a live webcam. Scott Boback hide caption

Watch a livestream of Colorado’s ‘mega den’ of pregnant rattlesnakes

July 24, 2024 • On a rocky hillside in Colorado is a “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes — along with cameras livestreaming the whole thing.

 Pregnant Rattlesnakes Webcam

Glyptodonts were giant, armadillo-like shelled mammals that went extinct about 10,000 years ago. A study reveals that cut marks on a glyptodont fossil in South America could have been made by humans a little over 20,000 years ago. Daniel Eskridge/Stocktrek Images/Science Source hide caption

When did humans get to South America? This giant shelled mammal fossil may hold clues

July 23, 2024 • A fossil of an armadillo-like mammal appears to bear cut marks from butchering by humans, suggesting people were living in South America at least 20,000 years ago, even earlier than once thought.

Ancient Armadillos

Once completed, India's National River Linking Project will transfer an estimated 200 billion cubic meters of water around the country each year. STRDEL / Stringer/Getty Images hide caption

India's plan to reroute rivers could have unintended consequences on rainfall

July 19, 2024 • More than a hundred years ago, a British engineer proposed linking two rivers in India to better irrigate the area and cheaply move goods. The link never happened, but the idea survived. Today, due to extreme flooding in some parts of the country mirrored by debilitating drought in others, India's National Water Development Agency plans to dig thirty links between rivers across the country. It's the largest project of its kind and will take decades to complete. But scientists are worried what moving that much water could do to the land, the people — and even the weather. Host Emily Kwong talks to journalist Sushmita Pathak about her recent story on the project.

In 2022, a large, unexpected rogue wave struck the Viking Polaris, breaking windows. One passenger died and others were injured. Alexis Delisi/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Rogue waves can strike without warning. These scientists found a way to predict them

July 18, 2024 • Scientists have created a new tool that can give 5 minutes advance warning of a dangerous rogue wave in the ocean.

A study finds that psilocybin can desynchronize networks in the brain, potentially enhancing its plasticity. Sara Moser/Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis hide caption

A scientist took a psychedelic drug — and watched his own brain 'fall apart'

July 18, 2024 • Scientists scanned the brains of people who took psilocybin, including a member of the research team. The scans showed how the drug disrupts key networks, potentially enhancing brain plasticity.

A prominent brain scientist took psilocybin as part of his own brain study

Crows can be trained to count out loud much in the way that human toddlers do, a study finds. Andreas Nieder/Universal Images Group Editorial hide caption

Crows can count out loud like human toddlers — when they aren't cheating the test

July 18, 2024 • A study finds that carrion crows can be taught to count and make vocalizations that indicate the number counted, much in the same way that human toddlers do.

Crows can count vocally like toddlers, research shows

An image released by the FDA shows bottles containing tianeptine and other compounds. Authorities have urged gas station store owners and others not to sell the products, with names like Neptune's Fix, Za Za and Tianaa, citing serious health risks. FDA hide caption

8 things to know about the drug known as 'gas station heroin'

July 14, 2024 • For decades, tianeptine was used to treat depression, even though no one knew how it worked. But it turns out it's a type of opioid, and the U.S. is facing a spike in abuse of "gas station heroin."

Researchers found that AI could increase the creativity of individual writers, but it also led to many similar stories. Moor Studio/Getty Images hide caption

Research shows AI can boost creativity for some, but at a cost

July 12, 2024 • Amateur writers using AI tools produced stories that were deemed more creative, but the research suggests the creativity of the group overall went down.

The star cluster Omega Centauri contains millions of stars. The movement of some stars suggests that an intermediate-sized black hole lies at its center. NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA hide caption

Astronomers spot a mysterious black hole nestled in a cluster of stars

July 10, 2024 • A report from Nature shows that astronomers may have found a medium-sized black hole, a kind they've long looked for.

Astronomers spot a mysterious black hole nestled in a cluster of stars.

Some ants, like the Florida carpenter ant, treat the injured legs of comrades, and will even perform medical amputations when necessary. Zen Rial/Getty Images hide caption

Like humans, these ants can perform leg amputations to save lives

July 10, 2024 • Some ants herd aphids. Some farm fungi. And now, scientists have realized that when an ant injures its leg, it sometimes will turn to a buddy to perform a lifesaving limb amputation. Not only that — some ants have probably been amputating limbs longer than humans! Today, thanks to the reporting of ant enthusiast and science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce, we behold the medical prowess of the ant.

A generic drug that's used to treat transplant patients has been shown to extend the life span of some animals. Guido Mieth/Getty Images hide caption

Rapamycin may slow aging. Here's one way the drug will be tested

July 1, 2024 • Longevity researchers are taking a generic drug they think may help extend people's lives. Now a dentist is testing if rapamycin stops gum disease — a canary in the coal mine for age-related diseases.

Anti-aging drug Rapamycin to prevent gum disease 

Paleontologist Dany Azar holds up one of his treasures that he discovered in Lebanon in a piece of amber from the early Cretaceous: The oldest mosquito ever found. Ari Daniel/For NPR hide caption

In Lebanon, the 'Amber Man' digs up golden time capsules from the age of the dinosaurs

June 28, 2024 • When dinosaurs reigned some 130 million years ago, flowering plants were taking over the world. That change is sealed in ancient amber specimens on the slopes of Lebanon that Danny Azar knows so well.

Reconstruction of a Lokiceratops rangiformis being surprised by a crocodilian in the 78-million-year-old swamps that would have existed in what is now northern Montana. Andrey Atuchin/Museum of Evolution hide caption

Named after the Norse god Loki, meet Lokiceratops, a new horned dinosaur species

June 28, 2024 • A brand new species of ceratops, or horned dinosaur, was recently discovered in northern Montana. The dinosaur is called Lokiceratops rangiformis , after the Norse god Loki, and is believed to have lived roughly eighty million years ago. The bones of the plant-eating dinosaur were found on private land in an area well known for its large amount of fossils, and at first, researchers thought the bones belonged to another species of dinosaur!

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Old books can have unsafe levels of chromium, but readers’ risk is low

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Spotlight on health.

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Quarks, Timelike Photons Do Not Mix

August 17, 1974 Vol. 106 No. #7

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August 10, 2024 Vol. 206 No. 02

Psilocybin temporarily dissolves brain networks

The last woolly mammoths offer new clues to why the species went extinct.

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Articles on Online news

Displaying 1 - 20 of 46 articles.

The ‘dead internet theory’ makes eerie claims about an AI-run web. The truth is more sinister

Jake Renzella , UNSW Sydney and Vlada Rozova , The University of Melbourne

Embracing digital spaces: How older immigrants are navigating the infodemic

Natalia Balyasnikova , York University, Canada and Claire Ahn , Queen's University, Ontario

People experiencing news fatigue are less likely to be voters

Paul Whiteley , University of Essex

Buzzfeed News: sad demise of a clever, innovative site that led the way in digital journalism

Sean Dodson , Leeds Beckett University

The Online News Act could give Google and Meta too much influence over Canadian news organizations

Sara Bannerman , McMaster University

Information literacy courses can help students tackle confirmation bias and misinformation

James Wittebols , University of Windsor

Why Ottawa’s efforts to get Google and Facebook to pay for news content misses the mark

Ricard Gil , Queen's University, Ontario

Canadians’ trust in the news media hits a new low

Colette Brin , Université Laval and Sébastien Charlton , Université Laval

Facebook vs. Australia — Canadian media could be the next target for ban

Jean-Hugues Roy , Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Comics can teach readers how to identify fake news

Erin Steuter , Mount Allison University

Facebook and Google used to be the future of news. But now media companies need more strings to their bow

James Meese , RMIT University and Edward Hurcombe , Queensland University of Technology

Coronavirus: why we should keep our eyes and ears open as well as our hands clean

Michael Wade , International Institute for Management Development (IMD)

You’re probably more susceptible to misinformation than you think

Darren Lilleker , Bournemouth University

How to spot fake news this election

Amy Binns , University of Central Lancashire

UK election 2019: conspiracy or cock-up ? The digital dirty tricks marring this campaign

Matt Walsh , Cardiff University

Brexit: democracy needs journalists to be transparent about their political sources

Meera Selva , University of Oxford and Richard Fletcher , University of Oxford

Media Files: ACCC seeks to clip wings of tech giants like Facebook and Google but international effort is required

Andrea Carson , La Trobe University ; Andrew Dodd , The University of Melbourne , and Matthew Ricketson , Deakin University

Shutting down the internet doesn’t work – but governments keep doing it

George Ogola , University of Central Lancashire

Big Fail: The internet hasn’t helped democracy

Robert Diab , Thompson Rivers University

As emerging economies bring their citizens online, global trust in internet media is changing

Bhaskar Chakravorti , Tufts University

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Professor of Informatics and Computer Science, Indiana University

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3 Questions: How to prove humanity online

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As artificial intelligence agents become more advanced, it could become increasingly difficult to distinguish between AI-powered users and real humans on the internet. In a new white paper , researchers from MIT, OpenAI, Microsoft, and other tech companies and academic institutions propose the use of personhood credentials, a verification technique that enables someone to prove they are a real human online, while preserving their privacy.

MIT News spoke with two co-authors of the paper, Nouran Soliman, an electrical engineering and computer science graduate student, and Tobin South, a graduate student in the Media Lab, about the need for such credentials, the risks associated with them, and how they could be implemented in a safe and equitable way.

Q:  Why do we need personhood credentials?

Tobin South:  AI capabilities are rapidly improving. While a lot of the public discourse has been about how chatbots keep getting better, sophisticated AI enables far more capabilities than just a better ChatGPT, like the ability of AI to interact online autonomously. AI could have the ability to create accounts, post content, generate fake content, pretend to be human online, or algorithmically amplify content at a massive scale. This unlocks a lot of risks. You can think of this as a “digital imposter” problem, where it is getting harder to distinguish between sophisticated AI and humans. Personhood credentials are one potential solution to that problem.

Nouran Soliman: Such advanced AI capabilities could help bad actors run large-scale attacks or spread misinformation. The internet could be filled with AIs that are resharing content from real humans to run disinformation campaigns. It is going to become harder to navigate the internet, and social media specifically. You could imagine using personhood credentials to filter out certain content and moderate content on your social media feed or determine the trust level of information you receive online.

Q:  What is a personhood credential, and how can you ensure such a credential is secure?

South:  Personhood credentials allow you to prove you are human without revealing anything else about your identity. These credentials let you take information from an entity like the government, who can guarantee you are human, and then through privacy technology, allow you to prove that fact without sharing any sensitive information about your identity. To get a personhood credential, you are going to have to show up in person or have a relationship with the government, like a tax ID number. There is an offline component. You are going to have to do something that only humans can do. AIs can’t turn up at the DMV, for instance. And even the most sophisticated AIs can’t fake or break cryptography. So, we combine two ideas — the security that we have through cryptography and the fact that humans still have some capabilities that AIs don’t have — to make really robust guarantees that you are human.

Soliman:  But personhood credentials can be optional. Service providers can let people choose whether they want to use one or not. Right now, if people only want to interact with real, verified people online, there is no reasonable way to do it. And beyond just creating content and talking to people, at some point AI agents are also going to take actions on behalf of people. If I am going to buy something online, or negotiate a deal, then maybe in that case I want to be certain I am interacting with entities that have personhood credentials to ensure they are trustworthy.

South:  Personhood credentials build on top of an infrastructure and a set of security technologies we’ve had for decades, such as the use of identifiers like an email account to sign into online services, and they can complement those existing methods.

Q:  What are some of the risks associated with personhood credentials, and how could you reduce those risks?

Soliman:  One risk comes from how personhood credentials could be implemented. There is a concern about concentration of power. Let’s say one specific entity is the only issuer, or the system is designed in such a way that all the power is given to one entity. This could raise a lot of concerns for a part of the population — maybe they don’t trust that entity and don’t feel it is safe to engage with them. We need to implement personhood credentials in such a way that people trust the issuers and ensure that people’s identities remain completely isolated from their personhood credentials to preserve privacy.

South:  If the only way to get a personhood credential is to physically go somewhere to prove you are human, then that could be scary if you are in a sociopolitical environment where it is difficult or dangerous to go to that physical location. That could prevent some people from having the ability to share their messages online in an unfettered way, possibly stifling free expression. That’s why it is important to have a variety of issuers of personhood credentials, and an open protocol to make sure that freedom of expression is maintained.

Soliman:  Our paper is trying to encourage governments, policymakers, leaders, and researchers to invest more resources in personhood credentials. We are suggesting that researchers study different implementation directions and explore the broader impacts personhood credentials could have on the community. We need to make sure we create the right policies and rules about how personhood credentials should be implemented.

South: AI is moving very fast, certainly much faster than the speed at which governments adapt. It is time for governments and big companies to start thinking about how they can adapt their digital systems to be ready to prove that someone is human, but in a way that is privacy-preserving and safe, so we can be ready when we reach a future where AI has these advanced capabilities. 

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Methodological note, find out more, newspapers fact sheet.

Newspapers are a critical part of the American news landscape, but they have been hit hard as more and more Americans consume news digitally. The industry’s financial fortunes and subscriber base have been in decline since the mid-2000s, and their website audience traffic has begun to decline as well. Explore the patterns and longitudinal data of U.S. newspapers below.

In 2022, estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) was 20.9 million for both weekday and Sunday, down 8% and 10% respectively from 2021.

Note: To determine totals for 2015 onward, researchers analyzed the year-over-year change in total weekday and Sunday circulation using AAM data and applied these percent changes to the previous year’s total. Only those daily U.S. newspapers that report to AAM are included. Affiliated publications are not included in the analysis. Weekday circulation only includes those publications reporting a Monday-Friday average. Comparisons are either between the three-month averages for the period ending Dec. 31 of the given year and the same period of the previous year (2015-2019), the six-month period ending Sept. 30 and the three-month period ending Sept. 30 of the previous year (2020), or the six-month period ending Sept. 30 of the given year and the same period of the previous year (2021-2022).

Source: Editor & Publisher (through 2014); estimate based on Pew Research Center analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data (2015-2022).

(Note that the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), the source of this circulation data and the group that audits the circulation figures of many of the largest North American newspapers and other publications, changed their reporting period in 2020 from a three-month period to a six-month period. Additional details about how the circulation estimate is calculated can be found in the  methodological note  below.)

Within this total circulation figure, weekday print circulation decreased 13% and Sunday print circulation decreased 16% from the previous year.

Digital circulation is more difficult to gauge. Using only the AAM data, digital circulation in 2022 is projected to have remained relatively stable. But three of the highest-circulation daily papers in the U.S. – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post – have in recent years not fully reported their digital circulation to AAM. The Times and the Journal provide data on digital subscriptions in publicly available reports, but since this is not the same as circulation and may not be counted under the same rules used by AAM, these independently produced figures cannot easily be merged with the AAM data. If these independently produced figures were included with the AAM data in both 2021 and 2022, weekday digital circulation would have risen sharply, by 22%.

Note: Researchers analyzed the year-over-year change in total weekday circulation using AAM data and applied these percent changes to the previous year’s total. Only those daily U.S. newspapers that report to AAM are included. Affiliated publications are not included in the analysis. Weekday circulation only includes those publications reporting a Monday-Friday average. Comparisons are either between the three-month averages for the period ending Dec. 31 of the given year and the same period of the previous year (2016-2019), the six-month period ending Sept. 30 and the three-month period ending Sept. 30 of the previous year (2020), or the six-month period ending Sept. 30 of the given year and the same period of the previous year (2021-2022).

Source: Estimate based on Pew Research Center analysis of Alliance for Audited Media data and subscription data from SEC filings and audited reports.

The addition of these figures also changes the overall picture for combined print and digital circulation. Before 2020, including these subscription numbers with the AAM circulation data would not have changed the overall circulation picture, as total circulation would still decline. From 2020 onward, however, including the Times’ and the Journal’s digital subscribers reverses the trend. In 2022, total weekday circulation would rise by 12% – not fall by 8%, as is the case when looking strictly at the AAM data. For comparison, the chart above shows estimated total weekday circulation using just the AAM data and when the digital subscriber numbers from the Times and Journal are included over the past seven years. For more details on how this affects our estimates and conclusions, read  this post from 2020 on our Decoded blog.

Note: For each year, the average traffic for each website for October/November/December was calculated; the data point represents the overall average of those numbers. Analysis is of the top 49 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2015-2019 and the six-month period ending Sept. 30 for 2020 onward, according to Alliance for Audited Media data, with the addition of The Wall Street Journal. For each newspaper, the Comscore entity matching its homepage URL was analyzed.

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, US, Unique Visitors, October-December 2014-2022.

Gauging digital audience for the entire newspaper industry is difficult since many daily newspapers do not receive enough traffic to their websites to be measured by Comscore, the data source relied on here. Thus, the figures offered above reflect the top 50 U.S. daily newspapers based on circulation. In the fourth quarter of 2022, there were an average 8.8 million monthly unique visitors (across all devices) for these top 50 newspapers. This is down 20% from 2021, which itself was a 20% decrease from 2020.

(The list of top 50 papers is based on Sunday circulation but includes The Wall Street Journal, which does not report Sunday circulation to AAM. It also includes The Washington Post and The New York Times, which make the top 50 even though they do not fully report their digital circulation to AAM. For more details and the full list of newspapers, read our  methodology .)

Note: For each year, the average minutes per visit for each website for October/November/December was calculated; the data point represents the overall average of those numbers. Analysis is of the top 49 newspapers by average Sunday circulation for Q3 2015-2019 and the six-month period ending Sept. 30 for 2020 onward, according to Alliance for Audited Media data, with the addition of The Wall Street Journal. For each newspaper, the Comscore entity matching its homepage URL was analyzed.

Source: Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, US, Average Minutes Per Visit, October-December 2014-2022.

Average minutes per visit for the top 50 U.S. daily newspapers, based on circulation, was just under 1 minute and 30 seconds in Q4 2022. This represents a 43% decline from when we first began tracking this in Q4 2014, when the average minutes per visit was just over 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

The total estimated advertising revenue for the newspaper industry in 2022 was $9.8 billion, based on the Center’s analysis of financial statements for publicly traded newspaper companies. This is down 5% from 2021, a slight drop. Total estimated circulation revenue was $11.6 billion, compared with $11.5 billion in 2020.

Source: News Media Alliance, formerly Newspaper Association of America (through 2012); Pew Research Center analysis of year-end SEC filings of publicly traded newspaper companies (2013-2022).

In the chart above, data through 2012 comes from the trade group formerly known as the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), now known as the News Media Alliance (NMA). Data from 2013 onward is based on the Center’s analysis of financial statements from publicly traded U.S. newspaper companies, which in 2022 numbered four and accounted for about 300 U.S. daily newspapers, from large national papers to midsize metro dailies and local papers.

From 2013 onward, the year-over-year percentage change in advertising and circulation revenue for these companies is calculated and then applied to the previous year’s revenue totals as reported by the NMA/NAA. In testing this method, changes from 2006 through 2012 generally matched those as reported by the NMA/NAA; for more details, read our  2016 report .

Source: Pew Research Center analysis of year-end SEC filings for publicly traded newspaper companies that break out digital advertising revenue for each year.

Digital advertising accounted for 48% of newspaper advertising revenue in 2022, based on this analysis of publicly traded newspaper companies. This follows a steady increase from 17% in 2011, the first year it was possible to perform this analysis.

In this fact sheet, circulation data through 2014 is from Editor & Publisher, which was published on the website of the News Media Alliance (NMA), known at the time as the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). The NMA no longer supplies this data, so the Center determined the year-over-year change in total circulation for those daily U.S. newspapers that report to the Alliance for Audited Media and meet certain criteria. This percentage change was then applied to the total circulation from the prior year – thus the use of the term “estimated total circulation.” This technique is also used to create the revenue estimates, using the financial statements of publicly traded newspaper companies as the data source.

This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistants  Sarah Naseer  and  Christopher St. Aubin .

Read the  methodology .

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Find more in-depth explorations of U.S. newspapers by following the links below:

• After increasing in 2020, layoffs at large U.S. newspapers and digital news sites declined in 2021 , Oct. 13, 2022
• News Platform Fact Sheet , Sept. 20, 2022
• Local Newspapers Fact Sheet , May 26, 2022
• U.S. newsroom employment has fallen 26% since 2008 , July 13, 2021
• A third of large U.S. newspapers experienced layoffs in 2020, more than in 2019 , May 21, 2021
• Coronavirus-Driven Downturn Hits Newspapers Hard as TV News Thrives , Oct. 29, 2020
• Nearly 2,800 newspaper companies received paycheck protection loans, and most were under $150K , Oct. 29, 2020
• Americans’ main sources for political news vary by party and age , April 1, 2020
• Black and white Democrats differ in their media diets, assessments of primaries , March 11, 2020
• Fast facts about the newspaper industry’s financial struggles as McClatchy files for bankruptcy , Feb. 14, 2020
• U.S. Media Polarization and the 2020 Election: A Nation Divided , Jan. 24, 2020
• For Local News, Americans Embrace Digital but Still Want Strong Community Connection , March 26, 2019
• What are the local news dynamics in your city? , March 26, 2019

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What’s Happening in Britain Is Shocking. But It’s Not Surprising.

By Hibaq Farah

Ms. Farah is a staff editor in Opinion. She wrote from London.

The scenes are shocking.

In the wake of the murder of three young girls in the northwestern town of Southport, England, riots erupted across the country. Seizing on misinformation about the suspect’s identity, far-right rioters embarked on a harrowing rampage, setting fire to cars, harassing Muslims, looting stores and attacking mosques as well as hotels housing asylum seekers. In an early August weekend , there were over 50 protests and almost 400 arrests. In the week since, hundreds of rioters have been charged and dozens convicted.

The country is stunned. But for all the events’ eye-popping madness, we shouldn’t be surprised. The animosities underpinning the riots — hatred of Muslims and migrants alike — have long found expression in Britain’s political culture, not least under the previous Conservative government whose cornerstone commitment was to “stop the boats” on which migrants made their way to British shores.

Far-right extremists, emboldened by that government’s turn to migrant-bashing, have been waiting for the perfect chance to take to the streets. Crucially, they have found a home online, where platforms — poorly regulated and barely moderated — allow the spread of hate-filled disinformation, whipping up a frenzy. These have been disturbing days. But the chaos has been coming.

Disinformation is at the heart of the riots. In the aftermath of the killings in Southport, users on X posted and shared false claims, stating that the alleged attacker was an asylum seeker who arrived in Britain by boat — when he was in fact born and raised in Wales. On TikTok, far-right users went live and called on one another to gather in protest. Their reach was wide. Thanks to the platform’s aggressively personalized For You page, it is not difficult to get videos in front of users who have already engaged with far-right or anti-migrant content.

The apparatus of assembly extended to messaging services. On Telegram , far-right group chats shared lists of protest locations; one message included the line “they won’t stop coming until you tell them.” In WhatsApp chats, there were messages about reclaiming the streets and taking out “major bases” of immigrant areas in London. These calls to action were quickly amplified by far-right figures like Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defense League , who took to X to spread lies and foment hate. Almost immediately, people were out on the streets, wreaking havoc.

There was little to stop the outpouring of false claims and hateful language, even after officials released information about the suspect’s identity. Legislation on internet safety is murky and confusing. Last year, the Conservative government passed the Online Safety Act , whose remit is to protect children and force social media companies to remove illegal content. But there is no clear reference in the law to misinformation.

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Bournemouth University

BU Research Blog

Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University

August 19, 2024

New qualitative research methods paper now online

BU research , Featured academics , Fusion themes , international , open access , Publishing , Research communication , research integrity , research methods , Research Training , Training , Uncategorized , writing Edwin van Teijlingen

I am delighted to share that our most recent methods paper in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods  entitled “Most  Significant Change Approach: A Guide to Assess the Programmatic Effects” [1] is now published and is available online (click here ! ).  This paper is co-authored by Mohan K. Sharma, Shanti P. Khanal and Edwin R.van Teijlingen.

Whilst older methods papers published Faculty of Health & Social Sciences academics include topics such as focus group discussions, working with translators, conducting pilot studies, the Delphi Method, comparative studies, and qualitative interviews [11-22].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

References:

• Sharma, M.K., Khanal, S.P., van Teijlingen E. (2024) Most Significant Change Approach: A Guide to Assess the Programmatic Effects, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/16094069241272143
• Gurr, H., Oliver, L., Harvey, O., Subedi, M., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) Positionality in Qualitative Research, Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology & Anthropology 18 (1): 48-54. https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v18i01.67553
• Thapa, R., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E., Heaslip, V. (2023) Researching Dalits and health care: Considering positionality, Health Prospect 21 (1): 6-8.
• Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2024) Using a range of communication tools to interview a hard-to-reach population, Sociological Research Online 29 (1): 221–232 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13607804221142212
• Sapkota, S., Rushton, S., van Teijlingen, E., Subedi, M., Balen, J., Gautam, S., Adhikary, P., Simkhada, P., Wasti,SP., Karki, JK., Panday, S., Karki, A., Rijal, B., Joshi, S., Basnet, S., Marahatta, SB. (2024) Participatory policy analysis in health policy and systems research: reflections from a study in Nepal. Health Research & Policy Systems, 22( 7) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-01092-5 .
• Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Rushton, S., Balen, J., Subedi, M., Karki, J., Adhikary, P., Sapkota, S., Gautam, S., Marahatta, S., Panday, S., Bajracharya, B., Vaidya, A. for the Nepal Federal Health System Team (2023) Selection of Study Sites and Participants for Research into Nepal’s Federal Health System, WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health
• Harvey, O., Regmi, P.R., Mahato, P., Dhakal Adhikari, S., Dhital, R., van Teijlingen E. (2023) Methods or Methodology: Terms That Are Too Often Confused. Journal of Education & Research , 13(2): 94-105. https://doi.org/10.51474/jer.v13i2.716
• Arnold, R., Gordon, C., Way, S., Mahato, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) Why use Appreciative Inquiry? Lessons learned during COVID-19 in a UK maternity service, European Journal of Midwifery 6 (May): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.18332/ejm/147444
• Shanker, S., Wasti, S.P., Ireland, J., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) The Interdisciplinary Team Not the Interdisciplinarist: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Research, Europasian Journal of Medical Sciences 3 (2): 1-5. https://doi.org/10.46405/ejms.v3i2.317
• Simkhada, B., van Teijlingen, E., Nadeem, A., Green, S., Warren A. (2021) Importance of involving patients and public in health research in Bangladesh and Nepal. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 37 : e10. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266462320000811
• Kirkpatrick, P., van Teijlingen E. (2009) Lost in Translation: Reflecting on a Model to Reduce Translation and Interpretation Bias, The Open Nursing Journal, 3 (8): 25-32 web address: bentham.org/open/tonursj/openaccess2.htm
• van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31 (3): 219-21.
• van Teijlingen E , Pitchforth E. (2006) Focus Group Research Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 32 (1): 30-2
• van Teijlingen E, Pitchforth, E., Bishop, C., Russell, E.M. (2006) Delphi method and nominal group techniques in family planning and reproductive health research, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 32 (4): 249-252.
• Pitchforth, E, van Teijlingen E , Ireland, J. (2007 ) Focusing the group, RCM Midwives Journal 10 (2): 78-80.
• Pitchforth, E., van Teijlingen E. (2005) International Public Health Research involving interpreters: a case study approach from Bangladesh, BMC Public Health, 5 : 71 Web address: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-5-71.pdf
• Forrest Keenan, K., Teijlingen van, E., Pitchforth, E. (2005) Analysis of qualitative research data in family planning & reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31 (1): 40-43.
• Brindle S, Douglas, F, van Teijlingen E., Hundley V. (2005) Midwifery Research: Questionnaire surveys, RCM Midwives Journal 8 (4): 156-158.
• Douglas, F, van Teijlingen E, Brindle S, Hundley, V, Bruce, J., Torrance, N. (2005) Designing Questionnaires for Midwifery Research, RCM Midwives Journal 8 : 212-215.
• van Teijlingen E Ireland, J. (2003) Research interviews in midwifery RCM Midwives Journal 6 : 260-63. http://www.midwives.co.uk/default.asp?chid=439&editorial_id=13768
• van Teijlingen E, Sandall, J., Wrede, S., Benoit, C., DeVries, R., Bourgeault, I. (2003) Comparative studies in maternity care RCM Midwives Journal 6 : 338-40.
• van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2002) ‘The importance of pilot studies’ Nursing Standard 16 (40): 33-36. Web: nursing-standard.co.uk/archives/vol16-40/pdfs/vol16w40p3336.pdf

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U.S. Newspaper Collections at the Library of Congress

Historical newspapers.

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This section of the guide provides an overview of the historical U.S. newspaper collections held by the Serial & Government Publications Division and served in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room (NCPRR) at the Library of Congress. "Historical," for the purposes of this guide, is defined as newspapers published during the 17th through 20th centuries.

The American newspaper collection spans 1690-present, and titles are held in microfilm, print, and/or digital formats. The Division does not have every U.S. newspaper ever published, but there are newspapers from every state and territory, including over 9,000 individual titles. Scroll down or click on the section linked below to explore the collections:

Print Collections

Microfilm collections.

• Lists by Century

Digital Collections

Historical newspapers research guides, authenticating old newspapers.

Contact us using our Ask a Librarian service to help you identify which titles are available from a certain time and place, and in which format(s). If we do not have the newspaper you need, we can help you locate it elsewhere.

The historical newspaper collection in original print format is comprised of 37,954 bound volumes, 18,979 rare 18th-century volumes, and over 50,000 individual portfolio issues. See the "Historical Newspaper Lists by Century" section below for lists of titles organized by place and available dates. Additionally, newspapers are cataloged by title in the Library of Congress Online Catalog . Collection materials must be requested through a paper call slip in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room, or requested in advance of a visit by using our Ask a Librarian service. Please note that, when available, microfilm or digital formats will be served in place of original print out of concern for the long-term preservation of the collections. Newspapers in original print format are not available for Interlibrary Loan.

Original Print Bound Volumes Collection

This collection is comprised of original print newspaper issues bound in volumes that are held in either remote storage or on-site in the Serial and Government Publications Division. For detailed holdings of bound newspapers, including location information, please search the Library of Congress Online Catalog . Items in remote storage are indicated by "Ft. Meade" in the call number. To request bound newspapers from remote storage , be sure to Ask a Librarian in advance to confirm holdings.

Portfolio Collection

The U.S. newspaper portfolio collection is comprised of individual, original print format newspaper issues and stored in large archival folders (portfolios). The Division holds portfolio collections for most U.S. states. To search the Library of Congress Online Catalog for a list of portfolios, conduct an Advanced Search , entering the state and "portfolio" in the search boxes, like this:

Narrow your search further by adding limits such as "Location in the Library" (Newspaper & Current Periodical) and "Type of Material" (Periodical or Newspaper). Call numbers generally have "X" at the end as an indication. ex: "Newspaper 8829-X: portfolio

The Division's newspaper microfilm collection consists of over 785,000 microfilm reels. Some of the most requested titles are immediately available in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room (see below). The vast majority of the collection is held in closed stacks and must be requested by filling out a paper call slip, indicating the call number, title, and dates of issues required and submitting the request at the Circulation Desk. Delivery time is generally within 30 minutes.

The lists below provide merely a starting point for finding out which titles and dates are available, and the lists are particularly useful for finding out which newspapers are available from a certain city or state. Search the Library of Congress Online Catalog for specific titles. Dates of holdings are noted by the "Older Receipts" at the bottom of catalog records, and titles will have a call number indicated by "Newspaper Microfilm ---."

Self-Service Microfilm Collection

The following newspapers are readily available in the reading room in the self-service microfilm cabinets. These titles do not circulate through interlibrary loan.

This resource lists U.S. newspapers from 1940-1980 on microfilm available for use at the Library of Congress. All entries are alphabetically arranged by state abbreviation, city, and title.

• Access the Chronological Index to Microfilm (1940-1989) Unless noted as a partial file, all holdings are assumed to be complete for the years listed. Because newspaper titles typically vary over time, the Chronological Indexes generally display the title used by a newspaper for the majority of a given decade. Microfilm control numbers have been listed to aid researchers in accurately requesting material.
• 1940-1949 U.S. Newspapers
• 1950-1959 U.S. Newspapers
• 1960-1969 U.S. Newspapers
• 1970-1979 U.S. Newspapers
• 1980-1989 U.S. Newspapers
• Microfilm Exceptions Report - newspapers with name changes, mergers, strikes, place of publication changes, etc.

Newspaper Lists by Century

• 18th Century
• 19th and 20th Century

18th Century American Newspapers

The 18th-Century American Newspapers in the Library of Congress website reflects the Library's holdings of pre-1801 American newspapers as of February 2, 1996. The list consists of individual newspaper titles arranged alphabetically by state, city, and newspaper title. The numbers in the title index and the name index (including printers, publishers, and editors) refer to entry numbers, not page numbers. This list also contains print and microform holdings.

• Access the 18th-Century American Newspapers in the Library of Congress website

This list is meant as a starting point in research and does not necessarily reflect the Library's current holdings. Please refer to the Library of Congress Online Catalog for the most up-to-date holdings information.

19th and 20th Century Original Print Bound Volumes

These lists, also linked from the left-side navigation panel, is based on an inventory of Library of Congress holdings that was conducted in Summer 1998. Arranged alphabetically by state, then city, the lists include the bound volume control number, total volume count, and summary holdings for each title. The lists do not provide detailed holdings; the dates listed may have unspecified missing issues.

This inventory is meant as a starting point in research and does not necessarily reflect all of the Library's current holdings. Please contact reference staff through Ask-a-Librarian to confirm holdings.

An ever-growing amount of historical newspapers are being digitized, though not nearly every newspaper ever published has or will be digitized. Digitization is an important preservation measure and it improves discoverability of newspaper content: digitized newspapers are typically word-searchable, while microfilm is not (it must be examined page by page). Some historical digital newspapers will be found freely available online, while others are available through subscription resources. Checking to see if a newspaper has been digitized will often require consulting several different sources.

• Chronicling America
• Digital Collections on LOC.gov
• On-site Access Only

There are ongoing efforts to digitize and provide free access to historic newspapers through the Library of Congress website. Digital newspaper collections include the following resources:

The Library provides access to many subscription-based digital resources that are available to researchers while they are on-site. See this list of historical newspaper databases in the Library's E-resources Online Catalog . Listed below are a few of the most commonly used databases for researching historical newspapers. The description indicates whether a database is limited to "On-Site Only," or if there is "Free Access" available. There are several public computer terminals in the reading room, or bring your own device and connect to the Library's Wifi. View the Library's Terms of Use for its electronic resources.

The following Research Guides produced by the Serial and Government Publications Division provide more information on historical newspapers at the Library of Congress.

Some of the most frequently asked questions we receive in the NCPRR relate to authenticating old newspapers. Newspapers are an important aspect of a community's collective memory, and saving clippings or entire issues that cover significant happenings is a common behavior through time and place. It is exciting to come across an old newspaper in an attic or at a yard sale or auction!

While there are very few historical newspaper issues with significant monetary value, some retain important artifactual value.  Although reference staff neither authenticates nor appraises items , we do provide information about a number of significant newspaper issues through "Information Circulars." These circulars were compiled by experts in the Serial & Government Publications Division and have been formatted into a guide:  Original or Reprint? A Guide to Noteworthy Newspaper Issues .

The Division accepts newspaper donations following evaluation of several factors, including the physical condition of the issue(s), long-term preservation considerations, and how the newspaper fits within the scope of the larger collections. For more information, please Ask a Librarian .

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• Last Updated: Jun 18, 2024 1:51 PM
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