Institutions of Democracy

Political reporter Brandon Rittiman of KUSA, 9News Denver, was awarded the 2015 Cronkite/Jackson Prize for Fact Checking for his work producing what the jury called "the best fact checking segments on local TV."

The Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement celebrated its relocation to the Annenberg Public Policy Center on May 4, in events that showcased their joint interest in civic education and judicial independence. The Rendell Center also sponsored a youth mayoral forum where 4th and 5th graders could question Philadelphia's mayoral candidates.

FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters, has been awarded the 2015 Webby for best Political Blog/Website by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. And thanks to its readers, it has also been awarded the People’s Voice Webby in the same category.

It’s known that Republican voters usually vote for Republican candidates, and Democrats vote for Democrats. Likewise, people who identify with the Tea Party often vote for Tea Party-backed candidates. But why do they vote that way? What is the psychological basis of their political preferences?

Television station KUSA in Denver, Colo., has won the 2015 Cronkite/Jackson Prize for Fact Checking Political Messages, named for the founding director of FactCheck.org, Brooks Jackson. The fact-checking award was selected by a jury convened by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, home of FactCheck.org.

The Rendell Center for Civics & Civic Engagement has moved its headquarters to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and the two institutions announced plans to collaborate on projects to strengthen civics education in schools.

Annenberg Classroom’s That’s Your Right game has been named a finalist for a 2015 Games for Change Award. The game, a single- or multiplayer digital card game that teaches students about the first 10 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, was named one of the three finalists for Best Gameplay.

In Quarterly Journal of Speech, Kathleen Hall Jamieson writes: "After arguing that our disciplinary origins and aptitudes equip us to understand the practice and potential of political debate, this essay will synthesize briefly some of the contributions our scholarship has made to understanding televised presidential debates..."

FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan fact-checking site, has introduced a new feature, "SciCheck," to investigate science-based claims in political speech. In a blog post announcing the feature, Eugene Kiely, the director of FactCheck.org, said SciCheck "will focus exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy."