Headlines from the Front Lines

The New York Times wrote twice as many articles about the Russian invasion of Ukraine after nine months of war as it did after more than seven years of Saudi-led conflict in Yemen, according to new research from SIS professor Jeff Bachman and Esther Brito Ruiz, SIS/PhD ’26. 
 
Published in Third World Quarterly, the study features an analysis of 546 headlines, which frame stories for readers and reflect the publication’s ideological stance on issues.
 
To date, the US has spent more than $75 billion in humanitarian, financial, and military aid to Ukraine and about $54 billion to support Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ military operations in Yemen.
 
“The US is essentially on opposite sides in these conflicts when it comes to its relationship to those inflicting the most civilian casualties,” write Bachman and Ruiz. Hence, headlines on Ukraine evoke moral outrage (“Ferocious Russian Attacks Spur Accusations of Genocide in Ukraine”), while those on Yemen are more neutral (“Apparent Saudi Strike Kills at Least Nine in Yemeni Family”). 
 
These biases in both the scale and the tone of coverage “lead to reporting that highlights or downplays human suffering in the two conflicts in a way that seemingly coincides with US foreign policy objectives.”

Sines of Success 

Five years after its founding, AU’s Sine Institute of Policy and Politics—a laboratory for university-wide collaboration and an incubator for policy innovation—remains steadfast in its mission: to promote common ground and develop nonpartisan solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
 
The groundbreaking institute was established in 2018 by Jeff Sine, SIS/BA ’76, and his wife, Samira, with a $10 million gift to the Change Can’t Wait campaign. Since then, the center has welcomed 29 fellows, 8 distinguished lecturers, and 265 guest speakers—changemaking experts in government, politics, academia, journalism, nonprofits, and business. 
 
More than 12,000 people have attended the 205 events hosted by the institute. And 225 students have supported its work as advisory group members, graduate assistants, and associates, working with the fellows to help design, plan, and execute their seminar series. 
 
The Sine Institute announced its sixth cohort of fellows on November 14. They are: 

• Larry Hogan, former Republican governor of Maryland and former chair of the National Governors Association 
• Thomas Nides, former US ambassador to Israel and former managing director, COO, and vice chair of Morgan Stanley
• Daniella Senior, CEO and founder of Colada Shop and a State Department culinary ambassador
• Manisha Singh, WCL/LLM ’96, founder and principal of Sunstone Strategy Group and former assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Economics and Business Affairs 
• Kara Swisher, journalist, CNN contributor, and host of On with Kara Swisher
• Patrice Willoughby, senior vice president of global policy and impact at NAACP 

Former astronaut Pam Melory, NASA deputy administrator, and journalist Jim Sciutto, CNN’s chief national security analyst and anchor of CNN Newsroom with Jim Sciutto, will serve as distinguished lecturers.  

Love Language

Spread the word: AU’s new, highly anticipated, 18-credit linguistics minor launched this semester in CAS’s Department of World Languages and Cultures. 
 
The program—designed to complement myriad disciplines, from government to finance to anthropology—allows students to confront big-picture questions: How are men and women socialized to speak differently? What role does language play in reinforcing biases? And how are words manipulated by politicians to influence public opinion? 
 
“Language is like the air we breathe—it surrounds us, and we depend on it absolutely, but it’s so ubiquitous that we often don’t think about it,” says Amelia Tseng, professor of Spanish and linguistics and director of the new minor. “Language speaks to who we are, where we come from, and who we want to be.”

Targeted Research 

Four out of five young Americans believe gun violence is a problem and 60 percent think that gun safety laws should be stricter, according to a first-of-its-kind survey from AU’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Everytown for Gun Safety. 
 
US Attitudes on Guns, featuring insights from more than 4,100 respondents, ages 14–30, was released in July. 
 
“This research shows so clearly that youth want to feel safe—which is no surprise, given that far too many of them have already been in an active shooter lockdown or know someone killed or injured by gun violence,” says SOE and SPA professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss, founding director of PERIL.
 
Guns surpassed car accidents in 2020 as the leading cause of death among children, teens, and young adults in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

A New Chapter for SOC

AU’s new, first-ever student chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is working to diversify an industry that is overwhelmingly White and empower the next generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) reporters. 
 
Founded in 1981, AAJA boasts more than 1,600 members across the US and Asia—nearly one-third of whom are college students. AU’s chapter was cofounded by Mina Allen, SOC/BA ’24; Maya Cederlund, SOC/BA ’25; and Genesis Magpayo, SOC/BA ’25.
 
“I came to AU wanting to study journalism but quickly realized that this industry depends on the connections you have,” Allen say. “It’s hard to feel welcome when you don’t see other journalists that look like you or have similar backgrounds. Our mission is to create a space for AAPI students in journalism and media at AU to overcome these barriers.”
 
According to a 2023 report from the Pew Research Center, only 3 percent of journalists in the US identify as Asian. 

Macro Effect of Microplastics 

The body of research on the abundance and impact of microplastics in DC’s waterways is as tiny as the fragments themselves. 
 
For the last three years, a team of CAS scientists has gathered samples from about six freshwater streams that feed into the Anacostia River to help create a more complete picture of the city’s plastic problem. Their findings on the first of those sites—Nash Run, which snakes through the Deanwood and Kenilworth neighborhoods in Southeast DC—were published this fall in Water, Air, and Soil Pollution.
 
The team found 24–127 microplastic particles per liter in Nash Run—most of them the result of high-density polyethylene used in containers for milk, detergent, and motor oil. 
 
Elisa Davey, CAS/MS ’22, an ORISE fellow with the Environmental Protection Agency, is lead author. CAS professors Barbara Balestra, Douglas Fox, and Stephen MacAvoy coauthored the piece.

Chart Topper

Kogod’s in its Billboard era.
 
In October, the industry publication named AU’s business and entertainment program one of the best in the world. 
 
Launched in 2013 by SoundExchange cofounder John Simson, the program puts experiential learning on heavy rotation, with students traveling to South by Southwest in Austin and visiting entertainment hubs in Nashville, Los Angeles, and New York. More than 200 Eagles have graduated from the program, including Creative Artists Agency’s Zack Borson, Kogod/BS ’16, who represents A$AP Rocky, and Rich Kepler, Kogod/BS ’19, day-to-day manager of the Killers. 
 
“This ranking is proof of the quality of the education that we offer our students at Kogod, the value of our amazing graduates, and the impact that they have at their companies,” Simson says.