How to Discuss Science in an Age of Cable News
Posted by Alex Berezow, RealClearScience
It's difficult to find good science news on TV. Whenever the major cable news outlets mention science, it's usually in some twisted political context: Fox News denies climate change; MSNBC fearmongers about fracking; and CNN asks if asteroids are caused by global warming. (Hint: They are not.) Even something has gone terribly wrong at our beloved science channels: Animal Planet aired a "fake documentary" about mermaids, and the Discovery Channel misled its viewers into thinking that a large, extinct shark called Megalodon could still be alive.
For scientists and science writers, this is greatly discouraging. How are we supposed to communicate about science in an age when political partisanship and media hype dominate the 24/7 news cycle?
Arthur Lupia gives some advice in the journal PNAS. He highlights two points that he feels are particularly important for scientists and science writers to think about when addressing an audience in a politically charged environment: (1) Finding ways to penetrate people's limited attention spans and (2) Enhancing credibility in the eyes of the audience.
In regard to the first point, Lupia informs us that humans simply don't have long attention spans. Walk into any academic seminar, and there's a good chance that at least one professor and a few grad students will be asleep in the back (and sometimes the front) row. To maximize impact, Lupia suggests that scientists "speak directly to audience members' affective triggers." In other words, scientists should try to elicit an emotional response from the audience because they will be more likely to remember the point. Lupia uses sea level rise as an example. People may have a harder time connecting with the abstract concept than with a more concrete example, for instance seeing their favorite beach resort under water.
(Continued here.)
It's difficult to find good science news on TV. Whenever the major cable news outlets mention science, it's usually in some twisted political context: Fox News denies climate change; MSNBC fearmongers about fracking; and CNN asks if asteroids are caused by global warming. (Hint: They are not.) Even something has gone terribly wrong at our beloved science channels: Animal Planet aired a "fake documentary" about mermaids, and the Discovery Channel misled its viewers into thinking that a large, extinct shark called Megalodon could still be alive.
For scientists and science writers, this is greatly discouraging. How are we supposed to communicate about science in an age when political partisanship and media hype dominate the 24/7 news cycle?
Arthur Lupia gives some advice in the journal PNAS. He highlights two points that he feels are particularly important for scientists and science writers to think about when addressing an audience in a politically charged environment: (1) Finding ways to penetrate people's limited attention spans and (2) Enhancing credibility in the eyes of the audience.
In regard to the first point, Lupia informs us that humans simply don't have long attention spans. Walk into any academic seminar, and there's a good chance that at least one professor and a few grad students will be asleep in the back (and sometimes the front) row. To maximize impact, Lupia suggests that scientists "speak directly to audience members' affective triggers." In other words, scientists should try to elicit an emotional response from the audience because they will be more likely to remember the point. Lupia uses sea level rise as an example. People may have a harder time connecting with the abstract concept than with a more concrete example, for instance seeing their favorite beach resort under water.
(Continued here.)
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