Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Ira Chinoy author of "Predicting the Winner: The Untold Story of Election Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting\," in conversation with t he Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's C ounty Memorial Library System.
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"The \;history of American elections change d profoundly on \;the \;night of November 4\, 1952. An out-of-the- box approach to \;predicting \;winners \;from early returns wi th new tools-computers-was launched live and untested on \;the \;n ewest medium for news: television. Like exhibits in a freak show\, compute rs were referred to as "electronic brains" and "mechanical monsters." Yet this innovation would help fuel an obsession with numbers as a way of unde rstanding and shaping politics. It would engender controversy down to our own time. And it would herald a future in which \;the \;public squ are would go digital. \;The \;gamble was fueled by a crisis of cre dibility stemming from faulty election-night forecasts four years earlier\ , in 1948\, combined with a lackluster presentation of returns. What trans pired in 1952 is a complex tale of responses to innovation\, which Ira Chi noy makes understandable via a surprising history of election nights as ve nues for rolling out new technologies\, refining methods of \;predicti on\, and providing opportunities for news organizations to shine. In "Pred icting \;the \;Winner\," Chinoy tells in detail for \;the \;first time \;the \;story of \;the \;1952 election night- a night with continuing implications for \;the \;way forward from& nbsp\;the \;dramatic events of 2020-2021 and for future election night s in \;the \;United States. -provided by the publisher. \; &nb sp\;
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\n\nAbout Ira Chinoy:
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Ira Chinoy is the author of "Predicting the Winner: The Untold Story of E lection Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting\," to be published by Potomac Books on May 1\, 2024. This book explores the contentious hist ory of election nights as important venues in American culture for rolling out new tools for journalism - which have been met with both excitement a nd ridicule - and it addresses the way forward from the events of election night 2020 and the drama that followed.
\nChinoy has 24 years of ex perience as a journalist at four newspapers: The Washington Post\, The Pro vidence (Rhode Island) Journal\, The Lawrence (Massachusetts) Eagle-Tribun e and The Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Commercial.
\nAt The Washington Post \, Chinoy was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Servic e for a 1998 series on the use of deadly force by the D.C. police. At The Providence Journal\, Chinoy was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for coverage of corruption and patronage in th e Rhode Island courts.
\nSince 2001\, Chinoy has been on the faculty of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism teac hing courses in the practice and history of journalism. He is the cofounde r of the Future of Information Alliance\, created at Maryland to foster tr ansdisciplinary dialog\, research\, and action on pressing information-rel ated issues.
\nChinoy graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1977. In 2010\, he completed his Ph.D. in Journalism Studies at Maryland w ith a dissertation titled &ldquo\;Battle of the Brains: Election-Night For ecasting at the Dawn of the Computer Age.&rdquo\; It won the annual disser tation prize by the American Journalism Historians Association.
\nIn 2021 and 2023\, Chinoy was awarded the Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History by the Association for Education in Journali sm and Mass Communication History Division. In 2021 he also received the N ational Award for Excellence in Teaching from the American Journalism Hist orians Association.
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