CROWDING OUT SCIENCE: "Perfect Storm" of Foreign Policy Crises Likely to Push Climate Change, Stem Cell Research, and Other Science/Enviro Topics Down Media-Policy-Public Agenda

The media, policy, and public agenda can be said to have a "limited carrying capacity." Since neither news organizations,members of Congress, nor the public can devote equal amounts of resources and attention to all issues, the rise in attention to one issue on the news agenda, is likely to bump down in prominence another issue across other agendas.

AND so, over the past few weeks, as Madeline Albright dubs it , we have reached a "perfect storm" of foreign policy crises. Consider the many flash points across the globe, events that, as TIME magazine frames it this week, have led the Bush administration to back down from its preference for "cowboy diplomacy":

Civil war in Iraq
War between Israel and Hezbollah
N. Korea's missile tests
Iran's nuclear program
Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan
Rise of Islamist militia in Somalia
Eroding relations with Russia
Disputed election in Mexico, that revolves on class and free trade tensions

All of this means that the growing attention to climate change (2006 is on track for a historic level of media attention), and the rising attention to stem cell research (with a Senate vote scheduled for next week,) are both likely to be muted by the agenda dominance of these foreign policy issues. We tend to think of science issues in isolation, but they rely heavily on the level of attention at different times to issues across other sectors of society.

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the opposition to esc research are killing them selves i think when the healing begins and people remember whos the ones that kept cures from happening. the cured will purge all the opponents.

By dan sheean (not verified) on 13 Jul 2006 #permalink

"Limited carrying capacity" is a great metaphor to explain this phenomenon.

This presents a technique that can be used at this level, and at "sub-levels", like politics, science etc. In essence, there are sub-audiences that focus more attention on specific areas.

The technique is so simple it seems obvious. But I've seen it used here and in the left blogosphere in general by the far right without any overt recognition of it. Distraction. By fostering false issues and pushing them onto the agenda, more vital ones get pushed off. It's hard to do nationally when there are such intrusions of external events, but over the last decade or so the right has used it repeatedly without much of a response.

And many, maybe most, on the left still in some form think politics works by getting data, info, "truth" to the American people. This inability of people to focus on more than a few items is only one of many reasons that type of approach is unrealistic and can easily be overwhelmed.

So far, the far right strategists have quite effectively kept attention of their real campaign by focusing it elsewhere.

By SkookumPlanet (not verified) on 13 Jul 2006 #permalink