nisbetmc | January 27, 2007As disappointing as this week's State of the Union address might have been to many climate change advocates, in today's Washington Post, Peter Baker and Steven Mufson have a revealing page one account backgrounding the evolution of Bush's thinking on the issue.
According to the article, in the last year, Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sach's chairman Hank Paulson along with FedEx Chair Frederick W. Smith have been pushing Bush for policy action on greenhouse gas emissions and energy independence. It was at a Dec. 13 meeting with Paulson, Smith, and Goldman Sachs vice-chairman Robert…
nisbetmc | January 26, 2007
Survey trends show that atheists are America's least trusted minority, ranking below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups. Moreover, Pew studies indicate that Americans are very comfortable with religion interceding in public life, and with the expression of religious faith on the part of candidates. The same Pew studies show Dems continue to have a "God problem." Even among so-called centrist members of the public, the party is perceived as hostile to religion, and this perception is a stronger predictor of presidential vote choice than either gender or church…
nisbetmc | January 26, 2007
The BBC in collaboration with the British think tank Demos has launched a "national series of conversations about new technologies, the future and society." Brits are encouraged to participate in informal small group discussions organized independently, facilitated public events at science centres and other community spaces, or can be selected to participate in a formal "deliberative" panel that brings experts and citizens together to discuss issues of interest. The project features an online discussion pack aimed at informing participants.
The Science Horizons web site also includes a…
nisbetmc | January 25, 2007
From high culture to pop culture, art can serve as a rallying point for social groups and activists who want to publicize their reservations about areas of science and technology. Consider Patricia Piccinini's powerful "We Are Family" exhibit that has shown in Europe and Australia. Her work captures much of the public's "yuck" factor sentiment when it comes to visions of animal/human hybrids and cloning.
Alternatively, consider the current contest in Canada to design the top "nanohazard" symbol. Here's what the Washington Post's Rick Weiss had to report over the weekend:
While many…
nisbetmc | January 24, 2007
I've noted in recent presentations and posts the strong role of partisanship in how Americans view the science and relative urgency of global warming. Yet according to a Pew survey released this week, the divide runs deeper and more complex.
Pew reports striking educational differences in partisans' views of global warming. According to the survey analysis, among Republicans, higher education is linked to greater skepticism about global warming -- fully 43% of Republicans with a college degree say that there is no evidence of global warming, compared with 24% of Republicans with less…
nisbetmc | January 23, 2007At the Washington Post today , Juliet Eilperin and Michael Grunwald report on the diverging priorities of House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic chairmen John Dingell and Henry Waxman, conflicts that might stall or even derail meaningful legislation on climate change. Last week, in a new column on Science & Policy at the journal Nature, David Goldston shared the news article's outlook, but added that similar personal rifts in the Senate might also delay a bill for a "couple Congresses."
According to the Washington Post report, Dingell's ties to industry and labor unions means that…
nisbetmc | January 22, 2007Across most nationally representative surveys, if you measure Evangelical christians as those respondents who identify themselves as "evangelical" and who also, when given a multiple choice question, answer that the "bible is the literal word of God," you usually find that about 30% to 35% of adult Americans can be categorized as Evangelical christians. If you just use the measure of "evangelical" self-identification, that figure runs closer to 40% or higher.
George Barna, a pollster who's firm specializes in religious marketing and communications, disagrees with this method for tracking…
nisbetmc | January 21, 2007
Something's rotten in Denmark. Conservatives once again have sprung a media trap on Al Gore, but this time overseas. At the Wall Street Journal , "skeptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg and Danish journalist Flemming Rose complain that Gore, while touring Denmark, backed out of a scheduled interview. According to the duo, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten set up an "investigative interview" between Gore and culture editor Rose. To maximize conflict, the paper invited Lomborg to participate.
Rose and Lomborg claim that Gore agreed to the terms of the interview, but then pulled out at the…
nisbetmc | January 20, 2007Want to keep up with the details of stem cell funding and politics in California? The California Stem Cell Report is the place for you. And while you are there, check out this reaction to my recent Skeptical Inquirer Online column on political communication strategy in the Congressional debate.
nisbetmc | January 20, 2007Later this weekend, I will have much more to say about this op-ed by Yuval Levin appearing in Friday's NY Times, so check back. The piece is a leading example of how stem cell opponents have honed a language in talking about stem cell research that imbues a technical topic with emotion, drama, and "yuck.".
nisbetmc | January 20, 2007
Science issues are lining up to be a big part of the political jockeying by the 2008 presidential hopefuls. Plans are in the works to make Framing Science the-go-to-site for news and insight tracking the candidates' strategies and positions. So stay tuned...but today, an update on the GOP side.
Former MA Gov. Mitt Romney has emerged as a hot ticket on the GOP fundraising trail, reportedly raising millions, and accumulating top staff to join his Boston HQ. Meanwhile, Washington buzz is that he is already the candidate of choice among Christian conservatives, based on his strong anti-…
nisbetmc | January 19, 2007While many schools pour hundreds of millions of dollars into athletics, more signs today that among the elite universities, stem cell research is at the center of competition. As I wrote last week, it's going to be difficult for Red State schools across the country to keep up in the national rankings as they are left behind in funding and support for research in regenerative biology by private institutions like Harvard, and public universities such as the UC schools, and after this fall, the SUNY system. From today's Boston Globe:
The Harvard University corporation will devote $50 million…
nisbetmc | January 18, 2007In the days before the House vote to fund embryonic stem cell research, the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times ran page one stories heralding a Nature Biotech study that indicated stem cells extracted from amniotic fluid might have "near pluripotent" like properties. Yet, despite the heavy attention from its competitive rivals, the New York Times was silent on the study. (For a full roundup.)
Not soon after the front page headlines appeared, as I predicted, the White House and various anti-abortion groups jumped on the study to claimed that it offered an important "middle way." Given the…
nisbetmc | January 17, 2007From the news wires:
Calling concerns about building George W. Bush's presidential library there unfounded, Southern Methodist University's president told faculty Wednesday the project would increase the school's visibility nationwide...."Over time, the political components of the library complex will fade and the historical aspects will ascend," Turner told 175 of the 600-member faculty at their spring meeting....Wednesday's meeting came about a week after a Faculty Senate meeting in which some professors raised concerns about the library -- everything from whether it would be a terrorist…
nisbetmc | January 17, 2007Many readers will want to check out the debate going on over at Belief.net between best-selling "End of Faith" author Sam Harris and "Conservative Soul" author/Time magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan. I have to admit, Sullivan does a noble job of defending his views, not to mention, doing it with flair and style.
nisbetmc | January 17, 2007
Tony Snow denies reports from sources close to UK prime minister Tony Blair that Bush will use next week's State of the Union address to announce plans for the US to adopt a "Kyoto-like" mandatory cap on emissions, part of the administration's move towards "more radical measures" on climate change.
For Bush to flip-flop his position on climate change might seem highly unlikely, but there is at least one interesting indicator in these reports. They are consistent with how the administration has cultivated journalists, pundits, and the public in advance of other major (and at one time…
nisbetmc | January 17, 2007
The latest analysis of the week's top news agenda stories from the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that despite the Dems best efforts to draw media and public attention to their roster of House bills, most notably stem cell research, coverage of the president's Iraq policy and national address completely dominated the media agenda:
The debate over what to do next in Iraq thoroughly dominated the news landscape last week, according to the PEJ News Coverage Index. In the second week of the new year (January 7-12) Iraq policy filled 34% of the overall newshole and was the top story…
nisbetmc | January 17, 2007Today I am launching a new regular feature where I will spotlight DC events of interest for readers of Framing Science who live, work, and play here in the Beltway.
While Framing Science covers mostly national and international issues, with the site's readership spanning the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, the "DC Events" feature emphasizes the "place-blog" nature of this site.
DC is perhaps the world capital for science, public health, and environment-related strategic communication activities, with many leading institutions and organizations focused on the topic. So I am hoping that…
nisbetmc | January 16, 2007University classes for the spring semester are in full swing, and several courses have integrated blogs and the evaluation of such into their class content. As previously posted, UNC's English 12 course has paid a visit here to Framing Science, and now UVA's Dept. of Politics seminar on Political Communication is doing likewise.
Welcome students from Prof. Claiborne's course. Please have fun navigating and evaluating my blog. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and feedback in the comments section of this post or others.
Of interest as political science majors, from the fall…
nisbetmc | January 16, 2007A warm welcome to students from UNC's English 12 course.
Please have fun navigating and evaluating my blog. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and feedback in the comments section of this post. Also of interest, from the fall semester, see this class blog debate" involving the students from my Communication & Society course here at American University, and the reading list for the same course scheduled this spring.