Press coverage of risk-modeling innovators skews to personality rather than substance

Evidence

Dennis Tito, the main competitor to BARRA (Barr Rosenberg and Associates) commented: “Despite all we’re doing, he gets all the coverage. Somebody came up to me the other day and said That Rosenberg’s fantastic. Did you know he runs four miles a day?’ Well, I run four miles a day, too, and nobody knows about it. I’m sure he has an interesting lifestyle, but I have an interesting lifestyle also, and nobody knows about that either.” (Welles 1978, p. 66) Rosenberg was not simply applying the Capital Asset Pricing Model but deploying statistically more elaborate models of risk and return. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1479

Categorization

• CANDY: Tito’s envious quip about competing for press attention is a light, shareable moment.
• XREF: connects to: Media coverage skews perceived risk toward rare dramatic events — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 162; Researchers overcomplicate models out of fear of disconfirmation rather than insight — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4374; Mass media resists the theoretical models that work for interpersonal communication — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 334

Broader Connections

• Media coverage skews perceived risk toward rare dramatic events #expands (0.80) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 162
• Mass media resists the theoretical models that work for interpersonal communication #corroborates (0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 334
• Researchers overcomplicate models out of fear of disconfirmation rather than insight #complicates (0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4374