Category Archives: Media

Firms Use Media Coverage to Influence Merger Negotiations

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Companies involved in merger talks manipulate their stock prices during negotiations by releasing more news than usual, according to a University of Michigan study.

“Media coverage has a significant effect on stock trading and returns,” said Kenneth Ahern, assistant professor of finance at U-M’s Ross School of Business. “Even stale news, if widely publicized, can dramatically raise short-term returns and influence prices of large and widely followed stocks in the S&P 500.”

In their study, “Who Writes the News? Corporate Press Releases during Merger Negotiations,” Ahern and Ross School colleague Denis Sosyura examined more than 500 completed stock mergers of large U.S. publicly traded firms from 2000 to 2008. They studied the frequency and content of news releases issued by acquiring firms, and analyzed more than 617,000 articles in 421 newspapers and newswires worldwide. (more…)

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Film by Yale Environment 360 Receives Oscar Nomination

Yale graduate student James Franco will be in the spotlight on the night of the Academy Awards as both co-host of the ceremony (with Anne Hathaway) and a “Best Actor” nominee (for “127 Hours”). But also vying for its share of the glitter will be a short Yale film on a big topic: the fledgling environmental movement in China.

“The Warriors of Qiugang” — co-produced by Yale Environment 360 (e360), an online publication of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies — has been nominated for an Academy Award in the category “Best Documentary: Short Subject.” (more…)

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Video: Bob Woodward Discusses Investigative Journalism in the New Century

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Bob Woodward ’65 discussed “Secrets: Uncovering Mysteries in the 21st Century” during a conversation with Steven Brill ’72, LAW ’75, founder of the Yale Journalism Initiative, and Paul Needham ’11, journalism scholar and former editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. (more…)

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Researchers Find Cancer News May Contribute to Confusion About Cancer

New research from North Carolina State University shows that most online news stories about cancer contain language that likely contributes to public uncertainty about the disease – a significant finding, given that at least one-third of Americans seek health information online.

“Previous studies show that more than 100 million Americans seek health information online, and that their findings affect their health decisions,” says Dr. Kami Kosenko, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the study. “But, while people facing uncertainty about cancer issues are likely to seek out additional information, we’ve found that there are features of the information they’re seeking that may actually exacerbate the uncertainty.” (more…)

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MU Researchers Find Celebrity Journalism May Contribute Positively to Consumer Health Behaviors

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Celebrity journalism is often considered to be without merit, discounted due to its sensational details and lack of news value. MU researchers now say that celebrity journalism may be an underappreciated way to communicate health messages. In a recent award-winning paper, Amanda Hinnant, assistant professor of magazine journalism in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found some readers of celebrity health stories report that the stories have an impact on their own behavior and how they discuss health issues. (more…)

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Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read

Back in 1983, approximately 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States.  Today, ownership of the news media has been concentrated in the hands of just six incredibly powerful media corporations.  (more…)

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Report: Discovery Networks Hostage-Taking a Rare Terror Event

*U.S. Violent Terror Rarely Against Media, Capital; Rare for Environmentalists* 

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A new report by terrorism researchers at the University of Maryland concludes that the deadly hostage-taking incident at the Discovery Communications headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C. meets the criteria of a terrorist act – a rare one for media organizations and the nation’s capital region. Hostage-taking, though, is a familiar pattern in capital-region terror, the researchers add.

(more…)

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