nisbetmc | September 12, 2007 Ira Flatow has a new book out chronicling his award winning interviews at NPR's Science Friday. Flatow appeared on NPR's Diane Rehm show yesterday to talk about Present at the Future and his experience as host of Science Friday.
nisbetmc | September 6, 2007
According to a new Pew polling analysis, religion is not proving to be a clear-cut positive in the 2008 presidential campaign. According to Pew, candidates viewed by voters as the least religious among the leading contenders are the current front-runners for the Democratic and Republican nominations - Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, respectively. On the other hand, the candidate seen as far and away the most religious - Mitt Romney - is handicapped by this perception because of voter concerns about Mormonism. In all, according to the analysis, it is far better for a candidate to be…
nisbetmc | September 5, 2007
Say what? Fred Thompson is launching his presidential candidacy on Jay Leno? In today's fragmented media world, it's a smart move. As the political scientist Matt Baum describes in a recent study, and as I have detailed on this blog many times, with so many media choices, audiences without a preference for political information are tuning out hard news and instead spending their media time with entertainment and infotainment media.
When candidates go on late night comedy, they reach the limited number of "persuadables" left in the electorate, non-news audiences who have few other sources…
nisbetmc | September 3, 2007
On Friday I will be taking part in the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program at Stanford University, speaking to attendees about how the public uses science information online. Whether news, YouTube, blogs or social networking sites, what does research tell us about the best way to engage key audiences?
Sponsored by the Woods Institute for the Environment, the Leopold program "advances environmental decision-making by providing academic scientists with the skills and connections needed to be effective leaders and communicators."
Next week, on Wed. Sept. 12, I will be in Boston at Northeastern…
nisbetmc | August 30, 2007
Science has published four letters in response to our framing article along with a fifth letter as our reply.
As it turns out, I know two of the correspondents fairly well.
Earle Holland, the author of the first letter, is assistant VP for Research Communications at The Ohio State University, where I served on the faculty for three years before moving to American University and Washington, DC. During my time at Ohio State, Earle attended a Dean's Lecture on framing that I gave to the College of Biological Sciences. We also discussed the nature of science communication several times. He…
nisbetmc | August 29, 2007Here are the major implications from our study analyzing twenty years of American public opinion data on global warming:
1. Global warming skeptics continue to make an impact on public opinion.
As we describe in the article, although a strong majority of Americans say that they believe that global warming is real, that temperatures are rising, and that the release of carbon dioxide is a cause, the public remains relatively uncertain about whether the majority of scientists agree on the matter. As long as the public remains confused about where the experts stand, public support for policy…
nisbetmc | August 27, 2007NOTE: Unfortunately, the article is only free access from most university IP addresses. Please email me at nisbetmc@gmail.com and I can send you a copy.
I have the following article forthcoming at the fall issue of the journal Public Opinion Quarterly that is now available as part of their free advanced access. Full text here and abstract below:
Nisbet, M.C. & Myers, T. (2007). Twenty years of public opinion about global warming. Public Opinion Quarterly, 71, 3, 1-27.
Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of news organization, academic, and nonpartisan public opinion surveys on…
nisbetmc | August 25, 2007
Before there was James Carville and Carl Rove, there was Michael Deaver, father of the presidential photo-op and stage master to the Ronald Reagan White House. As the Washington Post wrote in last week's Sunday front page obit, Deaver was "the media maestro who shaped President Ronald Reagan's public image for 20 years, transforming American politics with his powerful gift for image-making."
NPR On the Media devotes a segment to Deaver in this week's program, interviewing Reagan biographer Edmund Morris (listen to audio above.) In the interview, when asked about the secret of Deaver's…
nisbetmc | August 24, 2007
It's going to be a busy fall semester. Classes start here at American University next week but in my down time I will be traveling to many different cities and major institutions to talk to a diversity of groups about new directions in science communication. Below is a lineup as it stands right now.
A few other possible stops are still in the works. These trips will be an opportunity to talk about how research can and should inform public engagement efforts, but it will also be a great opportunity to gain insights from some of the smartest people in the country.
11.27.07. National…
nisbetmc | August 23, 2007
Congressman John Shadegg's re-election campaign issued a press release last week that cites Michael Fumento and Steve McIntyre to claim that the "facts" about climate change are wrong. If you missed the McIntyre controversy that ignited the conservative blogosphere and political talk radio, you can find the full context here.
In Shadegg's instance, he adds fuel to the fire by using Al Gore as a foil. It's another example of the "two Americas of climate change perceptions," a partisan divide that Gore has only amplified. Given competing cues from partisan leaders, over the past year, Dems…
nisbetmc | August 22, 2007
Pew has released an extensive analysis by political scientist Michael Robinson of three decades of its news consumption data. Among the key findings, since the 1980s, the percentage of the public who say they follow news about science and technology "very closely" has dropped by half, from roughly 30% during the 1980s to roughly 15% today. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who say they follow personalities and entertainment has doubled to 17%, while the proportion paying very close attention to terrorism/war; bad weather; and money top all issues, with each at 40% respectively.
In a…
nisbetmc | August 21, 2007
In his Sept. column at Scientific American, Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, echoes the very same warnings about the Dawkins-Hitchens PR campaign emphasized here at Framing Science and in our articles at Science and the Washington Post. He argues against the irrational exuberance of the New Atheist Noise Machine for the following three main reasons:
1. Anti-something movements by themselves will fail.
2. A positive message about what it means to live life without religion is absolutely critical. Other than selling books and further polarizing the public, where is at all…
nisbetmc | August 19, 2007In provoking the emotions of fear and anger among non-believers, the Dawkins-Hitchens PR campaign motivates many atheists to be ever more vocal in attacking and complaining about religion. Yet does this PR campaign reach beyond the base, convincing Americans to give up their collective "delusions"? Or does it simply create further polarization in an already deeply divided America?
As the social psychologist Carol Tavris notes in a recent Point of Inquiry interview, if anything, social science research suggests that the Dawkins-Hitchens PR campaign only serves to further balkanize America.…
nisbetmc | August 19, 2007As I wrote in response to the NY Times' review of Storm World, the success of The Republican War on Science provides a powerful frame of reference for Chris Mooney's latest book. In some cases, reviewers can't read Storm World without evaluating it via the lens of Mooney's previous work. Given such a strong association, reviewers are assigned what is really a well-researched and lively popular science narrative, but expect the Republican War on Hurricanes.
At Nature Reports Climate Change, in a review that opens by discussing the Nisbet & Mooney article at Science, Alexandra Witze notes…
nisbetmc | August 18, 2007
When I was about 7 years old, my Dad brought home a collection of audio tapes that contained the 6.5 hour 1981 NPR broadcast of the radio version of Star Wars. Adapted by novelist Brian Daley, this series provides a rich back story to the original movie. Its' sound effects, musical score, and craftsmanship have been called the most ambitious radio project in history. As a boy, I listened to these tapes every night before falling asleep.
And now the entire series is available on 6 CDs via the NPR store. This one is well worth having.
nisbetmc | August 17, 2007
As I've observed before, with this election cycle's crop of GOP candidates, when general election time arrives, it's going to be difficult to employ the traditional Republican strategy of claiming that the Democratic rival is a "flip flopper."
A leading example is Mitt Romney. First the former MA Governor was for stem cell research and now he's against it. Yet despite his new found moral opposition, as the Washington Post reports today, Romney continues to invest his personal fortune, managed via a "blind trust," in a company that is a leader in embryonic stem cell research. He also…
nisbetmc | August 14, 2007As part of its Climate Change Connections series, NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce contributes a fascinating feature on how the extreme weather of 1816 likely inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. That year, the volcano Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia sending vast amounts of dust into the atmosphere, influencing climate across the globe. In Europe, it was called "The Year Without a Summer," or "eighteen hundred and froze to death."
Technorati Profile
nisbetmc | August 14, 2007The Scientist is currently sponsoring an online discussion about framing and new directions in science communication. The web feature is in advance of an article I am contributing to the magazine, co-authored with Dietram Scheufele, a colleague at the University of Wisconsin. So far, more than 40 comments have been posted. There is also a reader survey at the site.
Regarding The Scientist discussion, Mary Miller has more to add in a post at her blog The Accidental Scientist.
nisbetmc | August 10, 2007
HYDERABAD, India - Dozens of Muslim protesters led by three lawmakers attacked an exiled Bangladeshi writer at the release of her book in southern India on Thursday, calling her "anti-Islam," and telling her to go back to her country.
More details.
nisbetmc | August 10, 2007
As Science reports, the big news this week is that Congress passed a bill that adopts almost all of the recommendations of the 2005 National Academies report Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America. The bill was signed this morning by President Bush.
The unprecedented success at translating expert recommendations into a policy victory is in no small part due to the strategic framing of the initiative. The complexities of this bill were put in terms that policymakers and the public could understand, value, and support. As one backer described: "We quit talking…