Assistant Professor of Political Science Paul Musgrave is interviewed for a story about survey findings that regular newspaper readers are more likely than those who get their news from television to be able to identify foreign countries on a blank map and answer basic questions about them. “It is so hard to keep track of events in this country, let alone everywhere else, and the more countries you start watching, the worse your ability to track any one of them actually gets,” Musgrave says. “But if you have somebody who can just tell you what to think, a trusted agent, it becomes more manageable.” (MorningConsult.com, 10/17/22) 

There is additional distribution of a Daily Mail article that quotes Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of the UMass Poll, about Kanye West’s assertion that BLM was a “scam,” one day after wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris. Recent UMass Poll findings show support is decreasing for the Black Lives Matter movement, even among African Americans. “Kanye West in some ways is voicing a sentiment that some aspects and portions of the American public believes and supports,” Nteta says.

With the opening of the U.S. Supreme Court,  Professor Paul Collins comments in a Newsweek article about the possibility that the Court could overturn a ban on bump stocks put in place after a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. "If accepted, this case will mark the first time in almost 90 years that the justices weigh in on significant gun control measures involving regulations of particular attributes of firearms,” Collins said. (Newsweek, 10/1/22)

Professor of political science and legal studies Paul Collins has co-authored an opinion piece examining the deep mistrust many Americans now hold toward the U.S. Supreme Court. “Scholarship demonstrates that public support for one political institution — like the Supreme Court — is linked to support for democratic institutions and processes more generally,” Collins and his co-author write. “Unfortunately for the court, these have been declining in recent years. For example, public approval of Congress has sunk substantially over the past 20 years. Only about 20 percent of the American public say they are very confident in the integrity of elections. And nearly 70 percent of Americans now believe that U.S. democracy is in crisis.” (The Washington Post, 9/30/22)