There it is, in the very first sentence of Theodore H. White’s Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicle of the battle between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon for the presidency: The curious challenge of trying to put one’s finger on power. Read more
“Facebook is a bit like that big dog galloping toward you in the park,” said the late New York Times journalist David Carr, bemoaning the influence the social media giant has had on publishers’ distribution—and, in turn, monetization. “More often … Read more
A condition called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is—or is not—a precursor of breast cancer. It does—or does not—require treatment. Doctors differ on these questions because definitive scientific evidence doesn’t exist. Some women with DCIS, a collection of abnormal … Read more
Astronomer and longtime professor David J. Helfand has taught scientific habits of mind to generations of undergraduates at Columbia University. His first book, “A Survival Guide … Read more
The first time I installed an ad blocker on my browser was in 2006. I don’t remember how I heard about Adblock Plus, but I do remember feeling a rush of satisfaction as the ads disappeared. I clicked around … Read more
Transparency is pointless if no one is watching, but there’s no way a human reporter can keep up with the open data created by a modern city, let alone a country. Software agents, sometimes called bots, can monitor vast … Read more
As a legal reporter in China for the past six years, I have spent a lot of time in courthouses. Judges almost always bar reporters from sitting in courtrooms and policemen frequently shoo us away from the … Read more
When Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps on March 24, the deaths of the 150 people on board were initially assumed to be a tragic accident. But within 48 hours, a transcript of the plane’s voice recorder … Read more
NPR’s Guy Raz, a 2009 Nieman Fellow, offered a reminiscence of New York Times media reporter David Carr, who died Feb. 12: In 1998, I got my first break in journalism out of college as a freelancer for the … Read more
“Some people won’t like reading this,” warned Carlos Alberto Pérez, author of the blog “The Kite of Cuba,” in one of his entries published on May 15, 2014. The post denounced a massive fraud in Cuba’s college entrance exams. Read more
