nisbetmc | November 11, 2009Earlier this year, in an article at Nature Biotechnology, I joined with several colleagues in warning that the biggest risk to public trust in science is not the usual culprits of religious fundamentalism or "politicization" but rather the increasing tendency towards the stretching of scientific claims and predictions by scientists, university press offices, scientific journals, industry, and journalists. As I detail with Dietram Scheufele in a separate article at the America Journal of Botany,(PDF) each time a scientific prediction or claim goes beyond the available evidence and proves to…
nisbetmc | November 9, 2009Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions has released a primer on the "Psychology of Climate Change Communication," synthesizing much of the research of the Center over the past several years. Written by Debika Shome and Sabine Marx, the primer is available both in HTML (by chapter) and in PDF format.
Readers will find of special interest the second chapter on the relevance of framing to communication. As I have noted, there is no such thing as "unframed" information. Whether you are a scientist, a public information officer, or a journalist, the choice is not…
nisbetmc | November 4, 2009For their upcoming annual meetings in San Francisco, the American Geophysical Union is sponsoring a pre-conference workshop introducing scientists, public information officers, journalists, and other attendees to several areas of social science research that examine dimensions of climate change communication and public engagement.
Below the fold are the details and the conference page is here. You can sign up for the workshop by visiting this page. It promises to be a great event and I am looking forward to the ideas, connections, and discussion that it generates.
Re-Starting the…
nisbetmc | November 4, 2009Over at Dot Earth, the NY Times Andrew Revkin has a good round up and preview on Gore's new book Our Choice. His post also includes an embedded 30 minute interview between Katie Couric and Gore on his new book. Of interest, Couric asks Gore if he thinks the climate debate has been too technical and if there is a need to simplify and appeal to emotions. She also asks Gore about the recent Pew climate survey, which Gore describes as an outlier, asserting that public will and support for action are actually on the rise rather than in decline, as the Pew poll indicates.
I will be picking up my…
nisbetmc | November 4, 2009
The faculty here at American University's School of Communication include several of the country's leading environmental filmmakers with their work coordinated through the Center for Environmental Filmmaking. One of our faculty Larry Engel worked on the recent PBS NOW film "Waterworld" which documents how climate change is impacting Bangladesh. The film describes the human health effects that climate change is already causing in this developing country of more than 200 rivers and frequent storm surges. You can read a transcript and/or watch the film at the embed above.
You will also want to…
nisbetmc | November 3, 2009
Repower America's lastest advertising campaign to promote their new online feature "The Wall" is brilliant. The ads and the social media initiative vividly portray the diversity of support for serious climate action while also framing the relevance of the issue in ways that transcend the traditional ideological divide. As I wrote in a paper this spring at the journal Environment, the Repower campaign is a stark contrast to the dominant message of Inconvenient Truth which may have unintentionally reinforced the partisan divide on climate change.
Gore, however, also faces a major…
nisbetmc | October 30, 2009Over at the Knight Science Tracker, Charlie Petit has a round-up on news coverage of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's first significant research grants for stem cell research. Though much of the focus in California and nationally has obviously been on the promise of embryonic stem cell research, only four of the 14 funded projects involve these type of stem cells. The emphasis is on projects that could lead to the most immediate clinical results, a strong if not "tacit acknowledgment that the promise of human embryonic stem cells is still far in the future" writes Andrew…
nisbetmc | October 29, 2009Last week's Pew survey on American views of climate change generated a sizable amount of speculation and debate from bloggers and other commentators. See for example this round up at the NY Times.
In comparison to some of this blog debate, readers will find very useful the discussion offered earlier this week at NPR's Talk of the Nation involving Pew director Andrew Kohut and Yale researcher Anthony Lieserowitz. [Transcript.]
For more background on how lingering public disengagement relates to the frames of reference provided by the media, climate skeptics, and climate advocates alike, see…
nisbetmc | October 29, 2009Creation is scheduled for a Dec./Jan. release in U.S. Theaters.
David Kirby is a geneticist turned science communication scholar who studies the depiction of science in popular film and the role of scientists as technical advisers to entertainment producers. He offers a review of the forthcoming Darwin biopic Creation at the blog Science & Entertainment Exchange.
nisbetmc | October 27, 2009The Trust for America's Health and the Pew Environment Group released a report yesterday focusing attention on the public health impacts of climate change. The report is the latest in a series of expert statements on the subject. The most significant finding is that only 5 U.S. states have engaged in planning related to the public health consequences of climate change. Research I am currently working on with Edward Maibach and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation examines how to effectively engage Americans on the health consequences of climate change. We expect that studies from…
nisbetmc | October 19, 2009In today's Washington Post, former editor Leonard Downie and communication scholar Michael Schudson preview the release of a major new study on the future of news. Below are some of the key recommendations of the report which reflect similar themes I have described in recent articles and at this blog specific to new models for science journalism. In particular, Downie and Schudson echo the need for government funding of new journalism ventures in areas such as science and health and the vital role at the local level that public media organizations and universities can and should play. […
nisbetmc | October 15, 2009This week Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story ($9.9 million) edged past Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed ($7.7 million) on the list of top grossing political documentaries. For more on the impact and box office success of Expelled, see this past article I contributed to Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
nisbetmc | October 13, 2009
Tonight, the AU School of Communication's American Forum series focuses on "Change + 1: Are young voters talking back to Obama?" A diverse panel of experts will look not only at how the Millennial generation views Obama personally but also how this age-group views the important issues facing the country today, including the economy and health-care as these issues affect them, transparency in government and the effectiveness of social-networking to govern versus social-networking to get elected.
Panelists include David Gregory, moderator, NBC's Meet the Press and AU alum; Jose Antonio…
nisbetmc | October 2, 2009
Now that Richard Dawkins has a new book out intended to introduce evolutionary science to a wider audience, is he re-framing his message on science and religion to allow for accommodation? It's too early to say based only on comments made during an interview at Newsweek. Josh Rosenau has the details and a discussion.
nisbetmc | September 30, 2009
This week, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting released a report on best practices in digital journalism that I co-authored with several colleagues here at American University and the Center for Social Media. Titled Scan and Analysis of Best Practices in Digital Journalism In and Outside U.S. Public Broadcasting, the report was commissioned by CPB as part of the organization's planning for future directions in online reporting and media. In keeping with CPB's mission, the report has a strong emphasis on strategies for using digital journalism to promote civic engagement, public…
nisbetmc | September 28, 2009Earlier this month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation officially announced its 2009 Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research. Ten projects involving sixteen scholars from the country's top research universities were recipients of grants up to $335,000. For more on the program and awards, see this announcement. An abstract of our funded project on climate change communication is posted below.
Our research, in fact, is already well under way. This summer, with the help of several top class graduate students, we completed hour-long interviews with 70 Americans recruited from among 6…
nisbetmc | September 22, 2009
Michael Moore is in a class by himself when it comes to generating news attention, advance publicity, and box office for his documentary films. For example, when I was in Canada this past week, I picked up the National Post to read a lead front page story defending capitalism against Michael Moore's latest charges. Tomorrow night, Moore launches his film with a full hour on CNN's Larry King Live.
Yet the growing influence of documentary film is much more than Michael Moore. That's the focus of a special issue of the journal Mass Communication & Society that I co-edited with American…
nisbetmc | September 18, 2009At Knight Science Tracker, Charlie Petit has the details on one of the first examples of non-profit, localized coverage of science, a trend I have argued is necessary and worthy of investment on the part of universities, foundations, and government agencies.
nisbetmc | September 17, 2009
I am in Banff this week participating in a fascinating workshop on the scientific, clinical, ethical, and communication issues related to personalized medicine and genomics. A special issue of the journal Public Health Genomics (formerly Community Genetics) will focus on the themes covered at the workshop. I will be contributing a review article on research and issues related to the media and public engagement. Early access publication of the articles should occur in the spring.
On a related topic, earlier this week, the Columbia Journalism Review posted a commentary that I co-authored…
nisbetmc | September 9, 2009In a provocative article published last year, Nature columnist David Goldston tackled the topic of science and religion, focusing on the implications for public engagement and emerging policy debates. In the column, Goldston used as a backdrop the "Communicating Science in a Religious America" panel that I organized and that he moderated at the 2008 AAAS meetings in Boston.
Yesterday, in recognition of the column, Goldston was awarded an honorable mention in the National Science Writers Association's annual Science & Society Journalism Awards. Double congratulations are in order to…