FRAME: Ethics/Morality
nisbetmc | December 9, 2008Over at George Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication, they are hosting a poll asking readers to vote for the 2008 Climate Change Communicator of the Year. Among the choices are such notables as Thomas Friedman, Bill McKibbon, John Warner, and Chevron's "Will You Join Us" Campaign.
But my vote would be for a name not on that list: the Reverend Richard Cizik, VP for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals. Cizik is a perfect spokesperson for a hard to mobilize segment of Republican-leaning America. Not only does he have credibility among Evangelicals, but…
nisbetmc | March 5, 2008The latest issue of Nature Reports Stem Cell Research runs a lengthy news analysis by Meredith Wadman on the political communication effort that ultimately killed the New Jersey stem cell bond initiative. As the analysis details, a number of framing strategies on the part of opponents helped cement defeat last November.
Below I connect details from the news analysis to generalizable themes and principles that shape the communication dynamics of the stem cell debate. I also link to the relevant published studies that I have conducted.
--> Faced with a tight state budget, anti-tax…
nisbetmc | December 21, 2007A X-Mas Goracle
In an editorial in the latest issue of the journal Climatic Change, Simon Donner argues that scientists need to join with religious leaders in communicating the urgency of climate change. Donner is an assistant professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on climate change, coral reefs, and nutrient cycling.
Following the lead of older avant-garde communicators such as Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson and EO Wilson, Donner is one of many among a new generation of scientists who recognize that a paradigm shift is needed for engaging the…
nisbetmc | September 24, 2007
From the UK's Independent:The Pope is expected to use his first address to the United Nations to deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt protection of the environment as a "moral" cause for the Catholic Church and its billion-strong following. The New York speech is likely to contain an appeal for sustainable development, and it will follow an unprecedented Encyclical (a message to the wider church) on the subject, senior diplomatic sources have told The Independent. It will act as the centrepiece of a US visit scheduled for next April - the first by Benedict XVI,…
nisbetmc | August 3, 2007The AP reports that organizers of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Austria next month are offering the faithful a foretaste: daily cell phone text messages with quotes from the pontiff. The Archdiocese of Vienna said the service, which began Sunday and will continue through the pope's Sept. 7-9 visit, will provide free excerpts of his sermons, blessings and writings.
Currently on holiday, the Pope also framed an appeal on the environment in religious terms:
We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us...We must respect the interior laws of creation…
nisbetmc | June 12, 2007Yesterday, stem cell researcher John Gearhart, Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss, and physician William Hurlburt appeared on NPR's Diane Rehm Show to discuss the latest in the stem cell debate. I recommend listening to the archived audio as the program provides a great deal of context in understanding last week's events and the debate in general. Of interest to my post yesterday, both Gearhart and Weiss say that they think the timing of the skin stem cell studies were nothing more than coincidence.
(In other speculation, over at the Sandwalk blog, one commentator reports that the timing…
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 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 | April 3, 2007 Back in February, I described how the first release of the IPCC was a massive communication failure, never really landing on the wider media or public agenda. In a column at Skeptical Inquirer Online, I described alternative strategies for reaching Americans.
As the next IPCC release arrives on Friday, the New York Times has marshaled its journalistic resources in its best attempt to make sure that global warming places third behind the war and the 2008 horse race in terms of media and public attention. For the second time in three days, the Times leads with news about the issue. On…
nisbetmc | January 31, 2007
Tuesday was "open mike" day at Senator Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works committee, reports the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin. Senate Dems including Barak Obama took stage to hammer home the overwhelming consensus that climate change is real, and that major policy action, notably emission caps, is needed.
In her speech to open the session, Boxer compared the moment to the early 1970s, when a burning Cuyahoga River and the nation's smog filled cities galvanized Congress to take action on clean air and clean water. "It's once again our turn again to stand up and lead this…
nisbetmc | December 16, 2006
BBC NEWS CAPTION: "There is heated debate about the ethics of using stem cells"
What's wrong with this picture and caption?
As the BBC reports the horrifying discovery that healthy babies in the Ukraine may have been killed for body parts, including stem cells derived from bone marrow, the news organization also runs a photo and tagline implying that the scandal involves embryonic stem cells.
Even more confusion is featured at conservative news sites like LifeSite.Net:
Ukraine has long heralded itself as a leader in modern science's embryonic stem cell quest. BBC News reports that video…
nisbetmc | November 11, 2006
An unlikely coalition of environmental groups and Evangelical associations are promoting the new documentary "The Great Warming," which defines the issue in terms of a moral duty to future generations and the developing world. Narrated by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves, the film is being shown in theaters, but also along the "Passion of the Christ" model, is being promoted for special church screenings.
The possible appeal of the documentary plays on a major challenge in engaging the public on global warming. How do you tell the "old" story of global warming in new ways that engage…
nisbetmc | November 6, 2006
Overlooked in the Ted Haggard scandal is that the former head of the National Association of Evangelicals was also one of the leaders of the "creation stewardship" movement, framing the issue of global warming in terms of moral duty.
Polls show that Republicans are far less concerned with global warming than their Democratic counterparts, and framing the "old" issue of global warming in a new way around moral duty is a very viable strategy for engaging the Republican base, showing Evangelicals why the complex and "uncertain" topic was personally relevant. (See this post from Spring 2006.)…
nisbetmc | July 23, 2006
The Bush administration isn't the only government opposing the expansion of publicly-funded ESC research. This week, Germany joined with Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia in opposing a EU proposal to allow public funding for ESC research on embryos left over from in vitro clinics. Germany is trying to rally Italy to join in the EU coalition opposing stem cell research.
The announcement features the multiple faces of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government when it comes to science. Just a week earlier, Dr. Merkel, who holds a doctorate in physics, wrote in…
nisbetmc | July 22, 2006
Below I provide an overview of the Editorials printed at the national and major regional newspapers. Without exception, the newspapers denounce Bush's decision. Most go with the "moral inconsistency" angle: why prevent research that could save lives when the left over embryos at IVF clinics would be destroyed anyway? Only a few papers emphasize PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY, linking Bush's decision to a general "hostility to science" and a perceived tendency to decide public policy based on his religious beliefs and the preferences of Christian conservative groups. A few reference the difference…
nisbetmc | July 15, 2006The political debate over stem cell research in Australia is following a pattern similar to the controversy in the U.S. This week, after Australian PM John Howard announced that he would support a continued Federal ban on medical cloning, a decision at odds with the recommendations of a recent independent commission, several Australian states are considering passing legislation that would bypass Federal rules. Meanwhile, scientists in the country are using the ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS frame to argue in favor of research, warning that a Federal ban could lead to a "brain drain" of top…
nisbetmc | July 13, 2006
Last week was the ten year anniversary of the birth of the cloned sheep Dolly. Looking around for good examples of visual framing for a course I teach in Political Communication, I came across this classic comparison between the cover stories that ran at Scientific American and the German weekly Der Spiegel. Playing to audiences with a different set of interests, and to political cultures with very different histories when it comes to genetic engineering, the magazines take the same event, and visually accent dimensions that lead to competing interpretations of the announcement.…