nisbetmc | April 10, 2008Next week, on Friday April 18, I will be giving a talk at the National Science Foundation, sponsored by the National Capital Area Skeptics. Open to the public and NSF staff**, the talk is titled "Framing Science: Conflict and Consensus in Public Communication."
As case studies, I will be focusing specifically on the issues of climate change and evolution, reviewing media and public opinion trends while also contextualizing the relevance of Gore's new communication initiative and the release of Expelled. The presentation marks roughly a year since the publication of the Framing Science essay…
nisbetmc | April 9, 2008The latest in the Science Communication Consortium series...
The Science Communication Consortium presents:
Science and Congress: The Role of Think Tanks and Congressional Science Committees
Thursday, April 24, 2008
7:00-8:30pm
CUNY - 365 Fifth Avenue, NY NY (directions below)
Recent years have seen a rise in prominence of legislative issues that control how scientists work or that require scientific information for decision making. How do legislators receive this information, and what are the potential effects of distortion or misunderstanding of it on science in the United States? Join us…
nisbetmc | April 9, 2008From the National Academies recent report on evolution:
"As SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM makes clear, the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. Science and religion are different ways of understanding the world. Needlessly placing them in opposition reduces the potential of each to contribute to a better future.
nisbetmc | April 8, 2008When producers release a documentary about a public affairs topic, especially in the case of a propaganda film like Expelled, they create several natural advantages over the typical news coverage that follows a policy debate.
First, in the lead up to the release of the film, the documentary generates coverage at softer news beats such as film reviews, the lifestyle pages, and in the case I detail below, the show business beat. In these contexts, the claims of the film are featured without context or absent a counter-argument.
Readers of these news zones are likely to be less familiar with…
nisbetmc | April 8, 2008As I have mentioned here before, one of the studies I am working on evaluates the impact of documentary film across audiences, news coverage, and policy contexts. I have written short introductions or columns on this topic in the past with a focus on Inconvenient Truth. While searching around for additional data, I ran across this survey report from Kaiser on the impact of Michael Moore's SICKO.
If the potential impact of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko" were dependent solely on those who have actually seen the film, the result might be a passionate but narrow conversation among the 4%…
nisbetmc | April 7, 2008In the left side bar, I have had a standing policy on comments for the past year. Here's what it says:
Keep it substantive, serious minded, on topic, and respectful.
Somewhat curiously, the only time I actually have to take action to enforce the comment policy is when a swarm of ardent faithful from PZ Myers' blog suddenly surges over here to complain about any criticism of PZ or any suggestion that diverts from the path of militant atheism. It's what physicist Chad Orzel describes in this post as the "screechy monkey" problem.
nisbetmc | April 6, 2008Ask yourself: What's the best way you can promote atheism in your community or on your campus?
Do you want to gain attention through polarizing attacks at your blog or in public statements, alienating even your moderately religious neighbors? Or do you want to be known as the community builder and leader who happens to also be an atheist?
The latter is a strategy for promoting atheism at the local and national level that I discussed in a previous episode of the Point of Inquiry podcast. I am reminded of that strategy by an article that appeared recently in the Buffalo News.
The article…
nisbetmc | April 2, 2008
Over the summer I addressed by video conference a meeting by the National Academies on state science policy advice. They've now produced a report based on that meeting and it is free as a PDF download.
Chapter Five of the report focuses on the communication of science advice at the state level and provides a fairly detailed overview of the Framing Science thesis generally. Below the fold you can read that section of the report. The narrative follows closely the article that I published at The Scientist last year with Dietram Scheufele (PDF) and the presentation that I have been giving on…
nisbetmc | April 2, 2008Yesterday, on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, Francis Collins appeared with other guests to talk about the science and ethics of personal genetic testing. The show was prompted in part by a front page feature that Rick Weiss wrote on the topic last week at The Washington Post.
Personal Genetic Testing
A growing number of people are turning to personalized genetic testing to learn about possible predisposition to some diseases, inherited behavioral traits, and clues to their family heritage. We'll talk about what these tests can tell us and some of the new questions they raise.
Guests
Dr. Francis…
nisbetmc | April 2, 2008At Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School on Monday, about fifty faculty and students turned out for the lunch time seminar on Framing Science. The Q&A generated traditional questions but also a lot of new ideas and angles. From one of the visiting faculty, we even received an invitation for a possible fall talk at Carleton College in Minnesota.
For those in the DC area, I will be giving a another talk tomorrow at the George Mason-Arlington campus. Open to the public, it's part of the George Mason-Georgetown-George Washington seminar series on science and technology policy. Anyone is invited…
nisbetmc | April 2, 2008
Several news reports note that Gore's new climate communication initiative targets Americans not just through television ads, but also by way of interpersonal networks, specifically what campaign organizers call "influentials" (roundup of coverage).
As I have argued previously, the current communication challenge is to go beyond the liberal democratic base who were mobilized by Inconvenient Truth, and to reach a diversity of publics who currently tune out the urgency of climate change. Here's what Andrew Revkin at the NY Times reports about the Gore-led campaign strategy:
Pollsters and…
nisbetmc | March 31, 2008A few weeks ago I highlighted this relevant finding from the massive amount of data contained in Pew's annual State of the Media report. And Chris highlighted the results of this separate survey. The posts grabbed the attention of a reporter for Science and the news nuggets are featured in the latest edition of the magazine with some quick analysis from me.
SCIENCE OFF THE AIR
Nearly half of Americans cannot name a "role model" scientist, living or dead. And only 11% can come up with the name of a living one, according to a survey released last week by the Museum of Science and Industry in…
nisbetmc | March 31, 2008I'm hitting the road for talks at Princeton, but a quick post on Gore's new ad campaign, launched officially with an appearance last night on 60 Minutes.
I haven't see the ads yet and I didn't see last night's program, but from news reports, the campaign appears to incorporate the types of necessary strategies that I've written about at this blog, in articles, or that I have highlighted in talks over the past year. Gore and his Climate Alliance specifically:
a) Attempt to reach non-news audiences, the type of people who have been tuning out the really good science coverage.
b) In commercials…
nisbetmc | March 30, 2008
I just drove round trip from the Minneapolis airport to Madison in a rented Toyota Prius. I have to say that the car is super fast and smooth and has amazing handling. Although the interior and accessories leave some things to desire, the handling compares with the best German cars. Highway mileage, however, is about what you get in a traditional compact or mid-size. The Prius is probably the only car I will rent from now on and I am hoping that other similar hybrid models will appear soon.
nisbetmc | March 29, 2008You don't have to be a social scientist to recognize that the distribution of opinion among people who comment at Scienceblogs is very different from the perspective found among the wider science community and even among leaders in the atheist movement. The reality of this perceptual gap was reinforced for me over the last two days as I gave the latest round of Framing Science talks at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. At the two campus presentations, roughly 150 faculty and students turned out to share in a very thoughtful and inspiring discussion about new directions in science…
nisbetmc | March 28, 2008From E.O. Wilson's appearance last year on PBS Bill Moyers talking about the common moral obligation among atheists and evangelicals to take collective action on the environment:
Let us-- in the service of a transcendent moral obligation and concern put aside our differences for the time being and not fuss with each other over evolution. In other words where it all came from. Let us agree looking at the evidence that is disappearing. And let us, dare I use the word, gather at the river.
Come together on common ground where we can exercise the extraordinary power we have jointly. And I argue…
nisbetmc | March 26, 2008Caitlin Wall, one of the students in my Political Communication seminar this semester, has embarked on a very successful job as an international affairs blogger for Foreign Policy magazine. Caitlin's latest blog post is sure to interest Framing Science readers. She analyzes the challenge to Al Gore put forth by climate skeptic J. Scott Armstrong. A Wharton School Business professor, Armstrong wants Gore to take him up on his $10,000 wager that he can forecast climate change more accurately than the climate modeling experts.
Fresh off a recent class lecture on the strategy used by…
nisbetmc | March 26, 2008Two weeks ago, I spent my spring break at the Exploratorium, as a visiting Osher Fellow. One of the projects I consulted on was the Exploratorium's "evidence" project, an exciting initiative that will provide Web and floor content introducing the public to how science works as a process and how science develops as a body of knowledge. In June, a special expert workshop will be held on the topic at the National Science Foundation, and there is likely to be proceedings published. I hope to have more to report come summer.
Among the other topics I discussed with staff were the themes presented…
nisbetmc | March 25, 2008
Speculation mounts as to whether Gore will endorse either Obama or Clinton in the Democratic Primary race. My suggestion would be that he stay out of election politics in 2008, except to try to raise the profile of climate change in a non-partisan way.
As I describe in this column and in several public radio interviews, public opinion is little changed today from the time of the release of Inconvenient Truth, despite the massive publicity success of the film and the sharp increase in news coverage of climate change. The reason is that Gore's success has been a double edged sword. Attention…
nisbetmc | March 25, 2008
Last week Pew released an in depth survey of national and local print and TV reporters, editors, and producers. Among the findings, Pew describes that journalists at national news organizations have become considerably more pessimistic about the state of their profession since 2004. By roughly two-to-one (62%-32%), more national journalists say that journalism is going in the wrong direction rather than the right direction.
In terms of what journalists, editors, and producers see as problems, there has been an increased focus on the financial pressures of doing business. As Pew describes,…