At New Scientist Magazine, Assessing the UK Government’s Goal to Change the Conversation About Food Biotech
At the New Scientist magazine last week, I was asked to provide an analysis of UK environment minister Owen Paterson’s announcement that his government would seek to change the conversation about food biotech in Europe. Here’s how the article opens. Read the rest…. How to win people’s hearts and minds for GM farming Shifting opinions...
Reading List on Science Communication in Political Controversies
UPDATE: SEE THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS COURSE AND READING LIST FROM SPRING 2014 For the last half of this semester’s seminar on Science, the Environment, and the Media that I am teaching at American University, students have been applying fundamental principles and theories from the first part of the course to understanding the dynamics of...
The Science of Science Communication: National Academies Event Examines Our Inconvenient Minds and Social Identities
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of research from the social and behavioral sciences offering insight on how individuals, social groups and political systems come to understand and make decisions related to science, the environment, technology, and medicine. Research in this area stretches across disciplinary boundaries, university departments, funding agencies and field-specific...
Understanding Up and Down Cycles of News Attention to Climate Change
Post by Sarah Merritt, American University doctoral student. Reposted from Big Think. News attention to climate change appears to follow a narrative cycle, where according to communication researchers Katherine McComas and James Shanahan (1999), rather than reflecting the objective conditions of the issue, coverage will follow closely the issue’s dramatic qualities including claims related to...