Matthew Nisbet
Professor of Communication at Northeastern University.
nisbetmc
Posts by this author
January 11, 2010
A recent article at the journal Science Communication reports on an innovative EU program that trained scientists in public engagement and science-society relations. Along with the Leopold Leadership Program, it is perhaps the best initiative to be developed to date and should be part of the…
January 11, 2010
CORRECTION: The Indicators Report will be released Friday, Jan. 15.
The bi-annual NSF Science Indicators report will be released on Wednesday. Chapter 7 of the report will contain a useful synthesis of public opinion trends on science-related topics along with review of research on other…
January 4, 2010
Last month, I did an interview with the Philadelphia City Paper on the stolen CRU emails. The feature story provides useful background and context on the communication dynamics of the event. Yet in organizing these details and assembling quotes, the reporter applies a now dominant narrative that…
December 31, 2009
The American University news media relations office is running a Web feature that focuses on many of the themes discussed at this blog. The feature is in the form of a "Q&A." You can read the feature here. Below are the questions for which I responded with written answers.
Q: What is "…
December 29, 2009
Slides and synchronized video of the presentations from the AGU panel "Re-Starting the Conversation on Climate Change: The Media, Dialogue, and Public Engagement Workshop" are now online. Below I link to each of the presentations highlighting key themes or conclusions and the minute mark in the…
December 21, 2009
Overlooked in the coverage and discussion of Copenhagen are the remarks of Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who in his speech at the summit emphasized that the real future of policy innovation and action rests at the local level. Watch in the clip above as Schwarzenegger calls for a follow-up…
December 17, 2009
Roughly 90 scientists, journalists, educators, PIOs, and policy staffers turned out to Sunday afternoon's AGU workshop on climate change communication. I will have more to say about the panel in forthcoming posts, but for now, Steve Easterbrook provides an amazingly thorough, transcript-like…
December 14, 2009
From the Associated Press to the Guardian to Reuters to Agence France Presse,protesters and journalists create a confusing storyline focused on chaos, conflict, and law and order
It's too early to say what impact the protests in Copenhagen will have on the negotiating process or on world public…
December 11, 2009
One of the arguments I have been making in talking to journalists is to beware the hype over the relative impact of the climate skeptics movement in contributing to societal inaction on climate change. As many studies, articles, and experts have documented and described, the impact of the skeptic…
December 10, 2009
Audio of yesterday's discussion at WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi Show on science, religion, and the climate debate is now available online. I wish we had more time to focus in depth on several of the themes raised in the program. In particular I think there is much more to explore relative to my concluding…
December 8, 2009
Tomorrow at 130pm, I will be a guest on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi Show to discuss the communication challenge on climate change and strategies for overcoming political polarization.
Also as guests from Copenhagen will be Richard Cizik, formerly VP of the National Association of Evangelicals and Eric…
December 8, 2009
On Copenhagen, not surprisingly, ideologically driven media outlets are working overtime to brand themselves and appeal to their respective audiences. Not only do we have the expected conservative commentary and reporting from brands such as Fox News and National Review archived daily at hubs…
December 8, 2009
Over at the Columbia Journalism Review, Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell file their first overview and analysis of Copenhagen coverage. Their daily round up of mostly mainstream news reporting promises to be a must read for the coming weeks.
December 6, 2009
ClimateGate: A now ubiquitous tagline that conveys a preferred storyline.
In a paper published earlier this year at the journal Environment, I explained how claims and arguments relative to the climate change debate can be classified and tracked using a typology of frames that are common to…
December 6, 2009
The journal Environmental Health Perspectives leads off its December issue with a news feature on the relevance of framing research to science communication. For readers who have followed recent review articles at Nature Biotechnology and the American Journal of Botany, the news feature adds…
December 6, 2009
A week from today, at their annual meetings in San Francisco, the American Geophysical Union will be sponsoring a workshop I co-organized on research related to climate change communication and public engagement. In the context of debates over Copenhagen and the stolen climate change emails, the…
December 6, 2009
If you are trying to make sense of the surge of news coverage and commentary surrounding the stolen e-mails from the East Anglia University Climatic Research Center, the place to start is Curtis Brainard's outstanding overview and critique of coverage last week at the Columbia Journalism Review.
December 3, 2009
I've been busy the past week with wrapping up the semester. As a consequence, I have not had the chance to post about continuing developments related to the stolen emails from servers at University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU).
However, today is a convenient time to weigh in,…
November 19, 2009
Richard Kerr's recent news feature at Science magazine offers a compelling look at the many communication challenges on climate change, especially at a time of apparent "climate fatigue." As Roger Pielke comments in the Science article, by sounding the alarm on climate change too loudly,…
November 19, 2009
For DC readers, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco will be speaking at American University tonight. Details are below
In 1998, Lubchenco as president of AAAS argued for a new social contract for science that requires scientists and their organizations to "communicate their knowledge and…
November 11, 2009
Earlier this year, in an article at Nature Biotechnology, I joined with several colleagues in warning that the biggest risk to public trust in science is not the usual culprits of religious fundamentalism or "politicization" but rather the increasing tendency towards the stretching of scientific…
November 9, 2009
Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions has released a primer on the "Psychology of Climate Change Communication," synthesizing much of the research of the Center over the past several years. Written by Debika Shome and Sabine Marx, the primer is available both in HTML…
November 4, 2009
For their upcoming annual meetings in San Francisco, the American Geophysical Union is sponsoring a pre-conference workshop introducing scientists, public information officers, journalists, and other attendees to several areas of social science research that examine dimensions of climate change…
November 4, 2009
Over at Dot Earth, the NY Times Andrew Revkin has a good round up and preview on Gore's new book Our Choice. His post also includes an embedded 30 minute interview between Katie Couric and Gore on his new book. Of interest, Couric asks Gore if he thinks the climate debate has been too technical…
November 4, 2009
The faculty here at American University's School of Communication include several of the country's leading environmental filmmakers with their work coordinated through the Center for Environmental Filmmaking. One of our faculty Larry Engel worked on the recent PBS NOW film "Waterworld" which…
November 3, 2009
Repower America's lastest advertising campaign to promote their new online feature "The Wall" is brilliant. The ads and the social media initiative vividly portray the diversity of support for serious climate action while also framing the relevance of the issue in ways that transcend the…
October 30, 2009
Over at the Knight Science Tracker, Charlie Petit has a round-up on news coverage of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's first significant research grants for stem cell research. Though much of the focus in California and nationally has obviously been on the promise of embryonic…
October 29, 2009
Last week's Pew survey on American views of climate change generated a sizable amount of speculation and debate from bloggers and other commentators. See for example this round up at the NY Times.
In comparison to some of this blog debate, readers will find very useful the discussion offered…
October 29, 2009
Creation is scheduled for a Dec./Jan. release in U.S. Theaters.
David Kirby is a geneticist turned science communication scholar who studies the depiction of science in popular film and the role of scientists as technical advisers to entertainment producers. He offers a review of the forthcoming…
October 27, 2009
The Trust for America's Health and the Pew Environment Group released a report yesterday focusing attention on the public health impacts of climate change. The report is the latest in a series of expert statements on the subject. The most significant finding is that only 5 U.S. states have…