nisbetmc | May 17, 2007Cities like Cambridge, MA, Madison, WI and Berkeley, CA aren't the only places in the world vying to brand themselves as 21st century centers of innovation. This week, the BBC series The Changing World features a two part episode on cities as science hot spots. Listen here.
What all of these cities have in common is a political culture that accepts and celebrates biomedical research. As a result, in coming decades, many states and cities in the US are likely to be left behind in the global competition for biotechnology investment.
PART 1
The BBC's Richard Hollingham begins in Japan.…
nisbetmc | May 17, 2007
In a segment from the recent Frontline special "Hot Politics," GOP pollster Frank Luntz explains his 1997/1998 memo that became the playbook for how conservatives like President Bush and Senator James Inhofe redefined climate change as really a matter of "scientific uncertainty" and "unfair economic burden." We detail the strategy and its impact on public opinion in our Framing Science thesis and in our talks as part of the Speaking Science 2.0 national tour.
Below you can watch a clip of Senator Inhofe's appearance on Fox & Friends the week of the release of this year's first IPCC…
nisbetmc | May 17, 2007On May 3, former House Science Committee chair Sherwood Boehlert gave the distinguished AAAS Carey Lecture. It recently came to our attention that Boehlert spent a significant chunk of the speech commenting on our Framing Science thesis published at Science and elaborated upon at the Washington Post.
We've now posted a reply to Boehlert over at "Speaking Science 2.0." Check it out. We've both long admired Boehlert's work and his ideas, and see it as a terrific opportunity to further push discussion along.
nisbetmc | May 17, 2007UWisc-Madison is joining Harvard and Scotland's University of Edinburgh by investing in a new stem cell research facility that promote cross-disciplinary collaborations. Tonight, in conjunction with a speech by Edinburgh scientist Ian Wilmut, the university will announce the new virtual center with $750,000 in initial funding. Here's how the initiative was described in the Wisconsin State Journal:
"Just about every university now has a stem-cell center," said Clive Svendsen, a co-director of the center. "This is a response to national competition in this area. We want to keep UW-Madison a…
nisbetmc | May 17, 2007
I've got my DVR set to 830pm EST tonight in order to record in high definition the world television premiere of Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus.
This past spring, I contributed to a Center for Social Media and Ford Foundation report evaluating the social impact of documentary film. Beyond any influence on general audiences, Randy Olson's Dodos has had what I describe in the report as a significant "social movement" impact, and in this case, by movement I mean scientists. As we noted in our Framing Science thesis, the film painfully demonstrates the tendency for…
nisbetmc | May 16, 2007Monday evening at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, Chris Mooney and I gave our first DC-area Speaking Science 2.0 presentation. We have details as pictures over at our new Speaking Science Web site. Inspired by Al Gore, Chris and I have also bought emission credits to off-set the plane travel that comes with our tour.
Our next inside-the-Beltway talk will be Tues. June 19 at the Center for American Progress, where we expect a very large crowd. On Monday, June 4 we will be taking the train up to Manhattan, speaking at the New York Academy of Sciences (…
nisbetmc | May 11, 2007I'm late to this news feature that appeared two weeks ago at the journal Cell, as others here at ScienceBlogs have already posted on the article. Quoted below is the section of the article that focuses on our Framing Science thesis and its relevance to science blogging:
The concept of scientists reaching out to a lay audience is not new. "Scientists are an opinionated bunch and they have given their thoughts on discoveries or events by speaking with journalists, writing letters to journals, authoring commentaries," says Matthew C. Nisbet, a professor in the School of Communication at…
nisbetmc | May 9, 2007How do you activate an otherwise disinterested Republican base on the issue of global warming? As we argued in our Policy Forum article at Science, two possible frames are to recast the issue as really a matter of moral duty or alternatively as an issue that might promote increased profits from new technologies.
In recent weeks a new frame strategy has emerged and it involves re-focusing attention to the issue around dimensions of national security. Again, advocates need to be careful here. The national security frame borders on a lot of the interpretations that have previously been…
nisbetmc | May 8, 2007
On Monday, we will be doing our first Speaking Science 2.0 presentation for the DC-area community as part of the annual meetings of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. The talk is open to the public, so we hope several inside-the-Beltway readers are able to make it out. (It follows the inaugural presentation we will be giving at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City on Thursday night of this week.)
Here are the details on the AIBS presentation (PDF flyer):
Monday, May 14
5:00 PM-6:00 PM
American Institute of Biological Sciences Annual Meeting
Capital Hilton Hotel
Washington, DC
nisbetmc | May 8, 2007In her book Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion, William & Mary anthropology professor Barbara J. King argues that religion is not so much a cognitively-derived belief system but rather rooted in social/emotional connections and actions. She studies chimpanzees and gorillas as a way to observe clues as to how our earliest human ancestors, via rudimentary language and social interaction, set the foundations for what would later become religion. (See this Salon.com interview for more.)
As an expert in language and culture, and as a scientist-turned-popular author,…
nisbetmc | May 7, 2007With the semester finally winding down, over the weekend, I updated the tabs "What is Framing?" and "Popular Science vs. Framing." These new sections of my blog explain in detail research on framing and media influence and also present a generalizable typology of frames that re-appear across science debates. Both tabs include bibliographies of recommended literature.
nisbetmc | May 7, 2007Even before the publication of our Science and Washington Post commentaries, Chris and I were asked to do a number of joint talks in various cities. As attention grew to our Framing Science thesis, we decided to formally launch a Web site devoted to the arguments raised in these articles and to other ideas that we are developing in forthcoming work.
So we're now pleased to announce a site at ScienceBlogs: "Speaking Science 2.0: The Road to 2008 and Beyond." It includes much additional information: Upcoming Events, Previous Speeches (available as Powerpoints, Audio, or Video), Articles, Media…
nisbetmc | May 4, 2007
Posted from La Guardia airport in transit to a talk at Cornell University. Will have more comments this weekend.
nisbetmc | April 27, 2007
On Friday, May 4, I will be back at my doctoral alma mater to give the following presentation sponsored by the Dept. of Communication. Readers at Cornell or in the area are welcome to turn out. Chris Mooney and I will have an announcement about other forthcoming talks very soon.
Framing Science: The Road to 2008 and Beyond
Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D.
Friday May 4
130 to 3:00pm
211 Kennedy Hall
Over the past several years, in debates over evolution, embryonic stem cell research, and climate change, it has become increasingly apparent that scientific knowledge, alone, does not suffice to win…
nisbetmc | April 26, 2007As we argue in our Framing Science thesis, in order to engage a religiously diverse public on pressing problems like climate change, it's important to offer positive and personally meaningful messages.
Our argument is cited and repeated today in a letter in the latest issue of Science written by Portland University biologist Steven A. Kolmes and theologian Russel A. Butkus. Here's a portion of the letter, my own emphasis included.
Science, Religion,
and Climate Change
A MOMENT OF AGREEMENT HAS ARRIVED FOR scientists to join forces with religious groups on issues of climate change. This is…
nisbetmc | April 25, 2007In an op-ed today at the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's paper of record, Chris Mooney weighs in with more on our framing science thesis. Chris has been on the road in Australia the past few weeks, talking about his forthcoming book as well as our arguments relative to effective science communication.
nisbetmc | April 25, 2007How do you influence conservative media outlets to take climate change seriously, re-casting the issue in a light that connects to their conservative audiences?
You got it: Framing.
It's a strategy that two scientists apply today in an op-ed published at the Washington Times. Bryan K. Mignone, a Science & Technology Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, and Mark D. Drapeau, a AAAS Fellow at the National Defense University, strategically piggyback on last week's military report on climate change to gain an audience at the notoriously conservative…
nisbetmc | April 24, 2007
Why is it so important to provide the wider American public with readily available and scientifically accurate "frames" that re-package complex issues in ways that make them personally meaningful and interesting?
A recent Pew study comparing survey findings across decades emphasizes one major reason:
Since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public's news habits. But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news…
nisbetmc | April 24, 2007This spring in the sophomore-level course I teach on "Communication and Society," we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter the nature of community, civic engagement, and social relationships. (See reading list.)
For many college students who grew up "online," it's easy to take for granted the "virtual" society we live in, seldom pausing to consider how it might be different from more traditional forms of community life.
Therefore, one of the goals of the course was to encourage students to think systematically and rigorously…
nisbetmc | April 24, 2007This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on "Communication and Society," we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter the nature of community, civic engagement, and social relationships. (Go here for reading list.)
For many college students, having grown up "online," it's easy to take for granted the "virtual" society we live in, seldom pausing to consider how it might be different from more traditional forms of community life.
Therefore, one of the goals of the course was to encourage students to think systematically…