nisbetmc | April 20, 2007
The Point of Inquiry podcast is produced by the Center for Inquiry-Transnational and averages 60,000 listeners a week.
In this week's show, host DJ Grothe and I engage in a lively forty-five minute discussion. You can listen here.
I offer more details on:
--> the nature of framing and media influence.
--> does framing mean false spin?
--> the likely negative impact of Dawkins.
--> communication strategy specific to the teaching of evolution in schools.
--> what the Discovery Institute understood about framing (also see this post.)
--> the role of framing in the debates…
nisbetmc | April 18, 2007If anyone should understand how to effectively communicate with the broader public about teaching evolution in schools, it's Dr. Steve Case. He's assistant director of the Center for Science Education at the University of Kansas and was co-chair of the science standards committee for the state of Kansas.
Case has been in the trenches and on the front lines for the past three decades. He probably has more experience working with science teachers and dealing with the news media than anyone in the country. Indeed, he is perhaps the most successful and savvy ambassador for science education…
nisbetmc | April 18, 2007A small yet very vocal contingent of critics continue to ferociously attack our Framing Science thesis.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are left wondering why.
Here are two observations posted today by fellow ScienceBloggers.
The immensely popular "Orac," the nom de blog of a surgeon/scientist offers this interpretation:
I've concluded that a lot of issues underlying this kerfuffle may be the difference between the "pure" scientists and science teachers (like PZ and Larry Moran, for example), who are not dependent upon selling their science for the continued livelihood of their careers, and…
nisbetmc | April 18, 2007The transcript of the interview I did last week at NPR's On the Media is now available. In the interview, I restate exactly what we argued first at Science and then at the WPost. It's worth reading. I've bolded parts of key sentences.
First, I emphasize, as we do in our published commentaries, the problem with going beyond the science in framing messages to the public. I use the example of global warming and more intense hurricanes.
Then the host, Brook Gladstone, follows by asking whether we suggest scientists become advocates.
BROOK GLADSTONE:....Climate change, says Nisbet, is a…
nisbetmc | April 17, 2007To be honest, I hadn't seen the online program Bloggingheads.tv before. But today they offer a pretty substantive discussion of our Framing Science thesis. Apparently the host agrees with us. His co-host misunderstands our goals for communication and the research on framing and media influence. But that's okay. It's clearly meant to be a point/counter-point. Kind of a Siskel and Ebert of blog commentary. Pretty cool.
nisbetmc | April 17, 2007NPR's Richard Harris reports on the UN National Security Council's attempt to recast global warming as really a matter of national and global security.
Trinifar has all the details and analysis. The mysterious one also has a related post up on yesterday's announcement by U.S. military brass that climate change is indeed a national security threat.
nisbetmc | April 17, 2007The Discovery Institute have a blog post up commenting on our WPost Outlook article.
Given this latest response to our Framing Science thesis, I wanted to take time out from an incredibly busy week to once again describe framing and its implications for successful science communication.
As I have noted and Coturnix so eloquently describes, in the process of communication, you can't avoid framing. Scientists do it all the time in lab talk, in conference papers, in powerpoints, in journal articles, and in grant applications.
However, as the communication process passes to science writers…
nisbetmc | April 15, 2007Bora continues to play a very important role in synthesizing and interpreting the whole strange chorus that seems to be going on in reaction to our Framing Science thesis. In his latest post, I couldn't have stated it better myself. He definitely gets it. He captures pretty much everything that needs to be said at this point.
The next several weeks are going to be very busy. I'm finishing off the semester teaching, and I have a lot of deadlines coming up. So what I'm saying is that this is going to be a very slow couple of weeks for me blog wise.
PS: Bora offers more light on the matter…
nisbetmc | April 15, 2007Over at Chris Mooney's Intersection, there is a lively discussion going-on of our Washington Post article.
I thought this comment was especially interesting, from scientist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson, director of Flock of Dodos, (airing next month on Showtime).
I'm a big fan of Randy. He's a scientist who is using his USC film school training to engage wider audiences on topics ranging from the teaching of evolution to ocean conservation. In the process, he's also raising important questions about how scientists can better communicate with the public. Randy, along with places like San…
nisbetmc | April 14, 2007In an article in the Sunday Outlook section of the Washington Post, we advance the arguments offered in our Science Policy Forum commentary. We also respond directly to some of the questions raised over the last week at several blogs. For more, listen to this segment from NPR's On the Media. Chris Mooney elaborates on the Post piece over at the Intersection.
nisbetmc | April 13, 2007 It's definitely been a busy week trying to keep up with a seismic blog debate. I've tried to weigh in where I can and so has Chris Mooney. However, in regards to our Science Policy Forum article, I think that this NPR On the Media segment pushes along the discussion . The show airs over the weekend at 200 NPR affiliates, but you can listen right now by pressing play below. Chris has this to add, posted from an airport in Australia.
We will have more later this weekend. Stay with us.
PS: Some bloggers think that we are asking scientists to spin their results. In our article, we clearly…
nisbetmc | April 12, 2007How do you play on the fragmented media system and the miserly nature of the public to persuade Americans to oppose major policy action on climate change? Conservative columnist George Will knows the "secret," and he uses his understanding once again in today's nationally syndicated column. It's an old trick that conservatives have been using for more than two decades, as we cite in our recent Policy Forum article at Science.
The strategy is to consistently and exclusively argue that not only is the issue still scientifically uncertain, BUT even if the science were sound (another frame…
nisbetmc | April 11, 2007Over at the blog Nanopublic, Dietram Scheufele, a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin, has posted a very useful discussion of our Science Policy forum article.
Scheufele, one of the most widely cited scholars on framing and the media, recently co-edited a special issue on the subject at the Journal of Communication. I encourage readers to check out Scheufele's blog post, along with his article in the special issue of JoC.
I also encourage readers to check out the following study published at Public Opinion Quarterly by Vince Price, Lilach Nir, and Joe Capella at the…
nisbetmc | April 11, 2007
How difficult is it for a well known political figure to break through the perceptual screens of partisanship, along with the ingrained frames of reference that citizens have developed over years, and boost their standing in the polls?
Consider Al Gore. Despite winning an Academy Award, receiving tons of free (and often glamorous) publicity in news coverage and on entertainment TV, Gore's favorability rating has only nudged up slightly in the latest Gallup polling.
According to the Gallup survey, only slightly more than half of Dems and only slightly more than a third of Independents would…
nisbetmc | April 10, 2007
Back in February, I chronicled the problems that the year's first IPCC report had in achieving wider media and public attention. In response, I argued that in today's fragmented media system, relying on traditional news coverage to attract the attention of the wider public just wasn't good enough.
As alternatives, I suggested recruiting and training a national system of opinion-leaders or "science navigators" to connect to fellow citizens on the topic, while also harnessing the power of entertainment media and celebrity culture to reach the massive audience of Americans who pay little or…
nisbetmc | April 10, 2007AAAS has provided me with an author's referral link that offers free access to our Policy Forum article. You can find the link in the left sidebar, just under the Science cover.
Meanwhile, I try to update blog reaction as best I can at this post.
nisbetmc | April 9, 2007Our Policy Forum article at Science has generated a monster blog discussion, one that is almost too much to keep up with. I continue to try to keep a summary here with my quick responses, where appropriate. I have also posted several comments at other blogs. I will continue to update as more blog commentary develops.
Reactions so far:
-->Over at The Intersection, a very strong endorsement from Flock of Dodos director Randy Olson:
Nisbet and Mooney are taking on the odious job of being the messengers of the new era for the world of science with their excellent essay in Science this week. I'…
nisbetmc | April 5, 2007I have a Policy Forum article appearing this week in the journal Science that is likely to spark a major debate. Co-authored with Chris Mooney and titled "Framing Science," the themes covered will be familiar to readers of this blog. In the piece, we respectfully argue that scientists shouldn't blame politicians and journalists all the time for gridlock on issues like climate change, stem cell research, or evolution. Indeed, part of the problem is that scientists carry with them the wrong assumptions about what makes for effective communication. More than sixty years of research in the social…
nisbetmc | April 4, 2007Over at The Intersection, Chris Mooney has a post up about the complete absence of U.S. news coverage dedicated to the record six tropical cyclones that have hit Madagascar, killing hundreds and causing massive damage.
It's the old proximity norm creating bias in news coverage. The result, apart from any important disaster relief reaction, is that Americans fail to get a big picture about just how global the hurricane problem might be.
Six tropical cyclones hit Madagascar over the past couple months, but you wouldn't know it if you lived in the U.S.
nisbetmc | April 4, 2007
Everywhere you look, polarized views from the tail ends of the bell curve of opinion on climate change are being picked up by the media. Indeed, only at a few outlets like the NY Times, WPost, or NPR can Americans get that "invisible middle" of views on the issue. Unfortunately, these are not the outlets that reach the wider public.
Consider the stories linked to at the Drudge Report today, one of the major agenda-setters, especially for cable news and political talk radio.
From a Vanity Fair article excerpting the script of Leonardo DiCaprio's upcoming documentary The 11th Hour (see note…