nisbetmc | March 23, 2008
If you haven't seen this clip yet, above is a preview of the central message on how "Big Science" views religion in the documentary Expelled. There's little work needed on the part of the producers, since the message is spelled out via the interviews provided by PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins.
Notice the very clear translation for audiences as to what supposedly establishment science believes:
A) Learning about science makes you an atheist, it "kills off" religious faith.
B) If we boost science literacy in society, it will lead to erosion of religion, as religion fades away, we will get more…
nisbetmc | March 23, 2008While the PZ Myers Affair dominates discussion at Scienceblogs this weekend, it's important to remind ourselves that there is an invisible middle of perspectives from scientists, atheists and the religious that emphasizes shared common values rather than the continual drum beat of conflict. Indeed, there's much more to the relationship between science and religion than just the loud voices of Myers and the Expelled producers.
From a front page story at the Arizona Republic yesterday headlined "Churches Preaching Green."
Parishioners are being asked to embrace environmentalism in a variety of…
nisbetmc | March 20, 2008In the March 14 issue of Science, a letter was published responding to our April 2007 Policy Forum essay and our October 2007 cover article at The Scientist. In her letter, Ruth Cronje emphasizes that it is important for the public to understand science as a process and method, a goal that is best accomplished through formal education where you have (usually) a motivated and attentive audience and (hopefully) well designed content.
Cronje is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and I look forward to discussing the topic with her further when I am in town next week giving…
nisbetmc | March 20, 2008At the popular site Ars Technica, science editor John Timmer pens a detailed summary of the "Communicating Science in a Religious America" panel held at last month's AAAS meetings. The article is also picked up by Slashdot.
nisbetmc | March 17, 2008Pew has released its annual "State of the Media" report with detailed summaries of their content analysis on each sector of the news media. I will be blogging about this report over the next couple of weeks, but for now, consider one of the more interesting findings from the analysis of cable news coverage, a finding that underscores the problem of choice for news audiences I have detailed on this blog before. Based on their analysis of the combined year long content at the cable news outlets, Pew concludes:
Collectively, the broad range of domestic issues including the environment,…
nisbetmc | March 10, 2008Student Pugwash has launched a very interesting science, environment, and technology guide for young voters. Press release below.
Student Pugwash USA Launches Science Policy Election Guide for Young Voters
Washington, DC (March 5, 2008): Addressing questions about climate change, energy security, and other concerns expressed by young voters in a recent survey, Student Pugwash USA launched From Electrons to Elections, a science and technology policy guide to the 2008 elections.
From Electrons to Elections is a non-partisan resource designed to educate young voters on science, technology, and…
nisbetmc | March 7, 2008In its latest issue, Time magazine runs a feature on the impacts of social issue dramas such as Blood Diamond and documentaries such as Inconvenient Truth. It's an area where I am conducting ongoing research evaluating the impacts of such movies across audiences, news coverage, and the policy agenda. I was interviewed for background on the story and I am quoted in the article. For more on this topic, see this report I co-authored last year for the Ford Foundation and Center for Social Media.
nisbetmc | March 7, 2008
In the latest issue of the journal CBE Life Sciences, National Academies senior staffers Jay Labov and Barbara Kline Pope describe the audience research that informed the writing, design, and promotion of the recent report Science, Evolution, and Creationism. Citing the articles I co-authored last year at Science and The Scientist, Labov and Pope describe how the National Academies commissioned focus groups and survey research in order to figure out how to "frame" the contents of the report in a way that made evolutionary science personally meaningful and relevant to non-traditional…
nisbetmc | March 6, 2008Yesterday PRI's The World ran a five minute news report (audio) on The Heartland Institute's climate change conference to which I contributed analysis. Also at their web site, they feature an extended 6 minute interview where I provide further background and analysis on the Heartland Institute's framing strategy, describing why the flat earth message continues to be so successful with American audiences (audio). For more on HI's message strategy see these two previous posts (the cable news effect & the similarity to the intelligent design campaign.)
nisbetmc | March 6, 2008
In his regular column at Nature this week, David Goldston weighs in on the themes discussed at the AAAS panel "Communicating Science in a Religious America," which Goldston moderated. In the column titled "The Scientist Delusion," Goldston notes that even very religious publics often strongly support many areas of science. To use as bogeymen and as a rallying cry "religious fundamentalists" and a "public hostile to science" doesn't make much sense and may even serve to harm the goals of promoting science in the United States. As he writes:
The point here is not that there's nothing for…
nisbetmc | March 5, 2008
As I explained yesterday, it's foolish to dismiss the potential impact of the Heartland Institute conference. The organizers have a powerful framing strategy, one that resonates strongly with conservative media outlets and many Americans. It's these kinds of successful PR strategies that continue to reinforce the "Two Americas" of global warming perceptions in the United States, with Democrats growing ever more concerned and convinced of the problem while Republicans remain skeptical, resulting in massive partisan differences in poll results across questions about global warming
Consider…
nisbetmc | March 5, 2008The latest issue of Nature Reports Stem Cell Research runs a lengthy news analysis by Meredith Wadman on the political communication effort that ultimately killed the New Jersey stem cell bond initiative. As the analysis details, a number of framing strategies on the part of opponents helped cement defeat last November.
Below I connect details from the news analysis to generalizable themes and principles that shape the communication dynamics of the stem cell debate. I also link to the relevant published studies that I have conducted.
--> Faced with a tight state budget, anti-tax…
nisbetmc | March 4, 2008I will be spending next week (my spring break) in San Francisco as an Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium science museum. While in the Bay Area, Chris Mooney will be flying up from LA to join me Tuesday evening at UC Berkeley for our latest in the Speaking Science 2.0 tour. Details are below. (We are expecting a pretty sizable turn out for the event, so make sure you arrive early. The auditorium holds roughly 150 people.)
Speaking Science 2.0:
A New Paradigm in Public Engagement
A conversation with Chris Mooney and Matt Nisbet
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
5:00 pm-6:30 pm
Location: 155 Dwinelle…
nisbetmc | March 4, 2008In a segment set to air on BBC/PRI's The World tomorrow, I offer my observations about the communication strategy of The Heartland Institute. The Chicago based think tank seeks to frame climate change in a way that is consistent with their free market ideology and mission.
Here's my analysis:
In seeking to bend science to fit with their preferred policy goals, the Heartland Institute (HI) chooses as a rhetorical bedfellow the Discovery Institute (DI), the think tank that brought us the public relations campaign against the teaching of evolution in schools. Not a bad choice strategically.…
nisbetmc | March 2, 2008With more than a million contributors and volunteers, if Obama makes it to the Oval Office, he could be the first "network president." That's how Joe Trippi on PBS NOW explains the Obama campaign's potential to turn their digitally linked contributors and volunteers into a massive political force to push through legislation on gridlocked issues like climate change.
nisbetmc | March 1, 2008
In this week's Point of Inquiry podcast, host DJ Grothe and I share a wide ranging discussion about the relationship between science and religion in the United States and the impact of the New Atheist movement. Much of the discussion revolves around the themes that I explored in the presentation at the AAAS panel on "Communicating Science in a Religious America."
From a description for the show:
In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Nisbet highlights the recent AAAS panel he organized titled "Communicating Science in a Religious America." He details his ideas for the most effective strategies…
nisbetmc | February 27, 2008
For readers in the Madison-to-Minneapolis region, on Thurs. March 27 I will be giving a talk at the University of Wisconson-Eau Claire. I will be covering much of the same ground that was featured on the two AAAS panels I appeared on earlier this month.
In the talk, not only will I be focusing on the need for new directions in communicating about evolution but also in the area of climate change (see this column for a preview on that latter topic.) In fact, there are many parallels between the two issues in how polarizing communication strategies keep us from making progress.
The talk…
nisbetmc | February 27, 2008
A perspective from Vanderbilt University professor John Greer: When a candidate goes on the offensive to show the harm in an opponent's preferred policies or an inconsistency between an opponent's words and their actions, it helps set an important comparison point for voters.
When those attacks are false or play on the opponent's race, gender, ethnicity, or religion, it's under these conditions that attack politics harm democracy. Of course, it's important that attack politics, no matter how substantive, do not occur in a vacuum. The news media has to play an important role as "fact…
nisbetmc | February 26, 2008There's more press coverage and follow up on the AAAS session "Communicating Science in a Religious America." My colleague Dietram Scheufele, a professor of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin, has this blog post up outlining his presentation on how religious Americans view nanotechnology and the role of framing in this process. Also see the ScienceDaily press release and discussion at the Wall Street Journal's BizTech blog.
nisbetmc | February 24, 2008A few more bloggers who were in attendance at the "Communicating Science in a Religious America" panel have weighed in.
-->The editor of Nature's blog network describes the panel as the most interesting session she attended at AAAS.
-->And if you read French, Agence Presse has this report.
In addition, following the panel, Ken Miller was interviewed by the Guardian and offers these audio remarks on his suggestion that scientists recapture the term "design" from creationists. Miller wowed the packed audience with a brilliant presentation, but I'm not sure this particular communication…