Thesis Defense by Ben Raback-Schink on April 15th

Space Studies Master’s student, Ben Raback-Schink, will defend his thesis as follows.  Please show your support by attending.

When: Monday, April 15th at 09:00 a.m. (Central DST)

Where: Ryan Hall, Room 111

Title: “The Influence of Media Bias Perception on Space Publications”

About the topic: This study aimed to discover three factors on the topic of media bias within space publication through the use of a survey. One was to see whether members of the space community view various news sources as biased, and to what degree they do if so. The second factor was to see how the general public viewed those same sources. These data were then used to compare the opinions of the two groups to each other. The third factor was to determine whether interjecting a perception of bias influences how trustworthy and informative the reader rates news articles. To be clear, it was not the intent of this study to research whether or not media bias exists. Rather, the goals were to identify trusted news sources in each community, and to identify whether the perception of bias can influence a reader’s interpretation of the news.

About the presenter:   Ben Raback-Schink earned his B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences University of North Dakota in 2012 and has been a weather officer in the U.S. Air Force ever since. As a Weather Officer, Ben is responsible for briefing space and weather impacts to Air Force missions and bases. He hopes to gain a M.S. in Space Studies in order to further his knowledge on how space policies impact the development of satellite development, exploration, space weather and other scientific research.

******Those unable to attend in person may view the live webcast******

1)      A simple live webcast will be available here.

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