Blog

Notes in progress.

Notes on what I notice, think about, care about, and love.

Filtered archive

8 posts

Communication and Judgment

Comm Scholars and Chimps: Disciplinary Boundaries and Reproductive Isolation

Communication, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Media Studies often study remarkably similar things. So why do their scholars still reproduce inside separate academic species?

Communication and Judgment

Buffet Economics: Starting with Watermelon in the Dining Hall

Why does watermelon disappear at the dining hall, and why does shrimp vanish at a Chinese buffet? A small economics lesson about value after the price of the next bite falls to zero.

Communication and Judgment

Before Evidence: What Must a System Take for Granted?

No system starts from zero. Before evidence can count as evidence, something has already made evidence possible.

Communication and Judgment

Most Papers Add Very Little. That May Be Fine.

Most social-science papers add only a little. The problem is not small contributions; it is the performance that they are larger than they are.

Communication and Judgment

When AI Changes Its Mind, Ask What Changed

I gave Gemini no new evidence. It changed its answer anyway, then produced a plausible explanation for why it had been wrong.

Contact

Questions, ideas, or collaboration?

I welcome conversations about communication research, methods, teaching, student media, and public-facing projects.

pliu@marian.eduLinkedIn