Evolution/Intelligent Design
nisbetmc | March 7, 2008
In the latest issue of the journal CBE Life Sciences, National Academies senior staffers Jay Labov and Barbara Kline Pope describe the audience research that informed the writing, design, and promotion of the recent report Science, Evolution, and Creationism. Citing the articles I co-authored last year at Science and The Scientist, Labov and Pope describe how the National Academies commissioned focus groups and survey research in order to figure out how to "frame" the contents of the report in a way that made evolutionary science personally meaningful and relevant to non-traditional…
nisbetmc | February 9, 2008The Center for Inquiry has posted a list of its many Darwin Day events scheduled for locations across the country. For science enthusiasts, these events serve as an important ritual for building community and social identity.
Darwin Day events also provide a news peg for generating local media attention. In this case, a positive message would be framed around the value of Darwin's original idea as the building block for medical and social progress. For example, without evolutionary science we would be hard pressed to understand problems such as bird flu.
This message should be paired with a…
nisbetmc | January 11, 2008An editorial by 17 professional societies at the FASEB Journal details the findings of a new survey on public opinion about evolution. The editorial closes by urging new approaches to public engagement, citing and echoing our Framing Science thesis at Science:
These data indicate that Americans respect the expertise of science and education professionals and also look to clergy for guidance on scientific issues of potential relevance to religion. The value of encouraging each of these groups--including scientists who hold religious beliefs--to become involved in promoting quality science…
nisbetmc | January 4, 2008At the History News Network, my American University colleague Lenny Steinhorn teams up with his brother Charles, a professor of Mathematics at Vassar College, to point out the misleading nature of the framing of evolution in presidential coverage. As they argue, political reporters overwhelmingly tend to describe evolution as a "belief" akin to believing in Virgin birth or miracles.
Lenny Steinhorn, author of The Greater Generation, a defense of Baby Boomers, is one of the most sought out strategists in Washington. [Of interest to readers, his work and teaching was recently profiled in the…
nisbetmc | July 25, 2007
As I've argued at this blog many times and in our article at Science, defining evolution in terms of medical progress is probably the best way to translate its' importance to a wider American public. Back in February, PLOS Biology published a revealing study where the authors strongly agree. In fact, they find that the framing used at scientific journals is likely to have strong implications for public perceptions. Indeed, a simple change in word choice could make an important difference.
Below the abstract, go here for full text:
The increase in resistance of human pathogens to…
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 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 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 | March 2, 2007
With their short term focus on the state primaries, GOP candidates are jockeying for favor from the right wing of the Republican party, and somewhere Democratic strategists are probably smiling.
It all adds up to major framing ammo for the general election, especially on the dimension of credibility, a theme that the GOP has long used against Democratic candidates like John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton.
As an example of the self-inflicted wounds that GOP candidates are scoring, consider John McCain. I like the Arizona Senator, and I admire his leadership on climate change, but you have…
nisbetmc | November 7, 2006
For his documentary Root of All Evil?, Richard Dawkins was granted inside access to Ted Haggard's Colorado Springs mega-church, and he sits down for an interview with Haggard. "This place strains belief. It isn't just a church, but an organized social network," comments Dawkins upon walking into the basketball arena-sized temple.
See the 8 minute clip at YouTube. Not surprisingly, Haggard accuses Dawkins of "intellectual arrogance," but manages to keep his cool after Dawkins compares his church service to a Nuremberg Nazi rally. Only later does Haggard pull up in his pick-up truck and…
nisbetmc | October 5, 2006
Following Pope Benedict's late August seminar on evolution, the consensus view from Science magazine and intelligent design watchdogs appeared to be that the Vatican was not yet ready to endorse ID, but rather was likely to come out in support of a theological view of evolution.
Yet, the Pope, perhaps in an effort to appease conservative members of the Church, continues to send out mixed messages on the issue, and ambiguity can be a powerful communication tool for ID supporters. For example, just before the meetings, the Pope replaced George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory,…
nisbetmc | July 8, 2006The journal Nature runs a story on the 50 most visited science-related blogs as ranked by Technorati. Only evolution stands out as a dominant special focus, though several very popular blogs are specific to climate change. More on this forthcoming, particularly the media-impact of these blogs.
nisbetmc | June 26, 2006On June 15, the day I moved from Columbus to DC, I listened during my drive out here to a few hours of Rush Limbaugh. On his program he discussed a story in the Boston Globe that outlined the major points of the election platform for Congressional democrats, dubbed a "New Direction for America." I was suprised to hear that a novel part of the platform emphasized investment in stem cell research and the defense of evolution in schools.
So I finally got around to looking up the Boston Globe article, based on a press release from Nancy Pelosi's office. Below is the text, what is interesting is…