Matthew Nisbet
Professor of Communication at Northeastern University.
nisbetmc
Posts by this author
April 10, 2008
Next week, on Friday April 18, I will be giving a talk at the National Science Foundation, sponsored by the National Capital Area Skeptics. Open to the public and NSF staff**, the talk is titled "Framing Science: Conflict and Consensus in Public Communication."
As case studies, I will be focusing…
April 9, 2008
The latest in the Science Communication Consortium series...
The Science Communication Consortium presents:
Science and Congress: The Role of Think Tanks and Congressional Science Committees
Thursday, April 24, 2008
7:00-8:30pm
CUNY - 365 Fifth Avenue, NY NY (directions below)
Recent years have…
April 9, 2008
From the National Academies recent report on evolution:
"As SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM makes clear, the evidence for evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. Science and religion are different ways of understanding the world. Needlessly placing them in opposition reduces…
April 8, 2008
When producers release a documentary about a public affairs topic, especially in the case of a propaganda film like Expelled, they create several natural advantages over the typical news coverage that follows a policy debate.
First, in the lead up to the release of the film, the documentary…
April 8, 2008
As I have mentioned here before, one of the studies I am working on evaluates the impact of documentary film across audiences, news coverage, and policy contexts. I have written short introductions or columns on this topic in the past with a focus on Inconvenient Truth. While searching around for…
April 7, 2008
In the left side bar, I have had a standing policy on comments for the past year. Here's what it says:
Keep it substantive, serious minded, on topic, and respectful.
Somewhat curiously, the only time I actually have to take action to enforce the comment policy is when a swarm of ardent faithful…
April 6, 2008
Ask yourself: What's the best way you can promote atheism in your community or on your campus?
Do you want to gain attention through polarizing attacks at your blog or in public statements, alienating even your moderately religious neighbors? Or do you want to be known as the community builder and…
April 2, 2008
Over the summer I addressed by video conference a meeting by the National Academies on state science policy advice. They've now produced a report based on that meeting and it is free as a PDF download.
Chapter Five of the report focuses on the communication of science advice at the state level…
April 2, 2008
Yesterday, on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, Francis Collins appeared with other guests to talk about the science and ethics of personal genetic testing. The show was prompted in part by a front page feature that Rick Weiss wrote on the topic last week at The Washington Post.
Personal Genetic Testing
A…
April 2, 2008
At Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School on Monday, about fifty faculty and students turned out for the lunch time seminar on Framing Science. The Q&A generated traditional questions but also a lot of new ideas and angles. From one of the visiting faculty, we even received an invitation for a…
April 2, 2008
Several news reports note that Gore's new climate communication initiative targets Americans not just through television ads, but also by way of interpersonal networks, specifically what campaign organizers call "influentials" (roundup of coverage).
As I have argued previously, the current…
March 31, 2008
A few weeks ago I highlighted this relevant finding from the massive amount of data contained in Pew's annual State of the Media report. And Chris highlighted the results of this separate survey. The posts grabbed the attention of a reporter for Science and the news nuggets are featured in the…
March 31, 2008
I'm hitting the road for talks at Princeton, but a quick post on Gore's new ad campaign, launched officially with an appearance last night on 60 Minutes.
I haven't see the ads yet and I didn't see last night's program, but from news reports, the campaign appears to incorporate the types of…
March 30, 2008
I just drove round trip from the Minneapolis airport to Madison in a rented Toyota Prius. I have to say that the car is super fast and smooth and has amazing handling. Although the interior and accessories leave some things to desire, the handling compares with the best German cars. Highway…
March 29, 2008
You don't have to be a social scientist to recognize that the distribution of opinion among people who comment at Scienceblogs is very different from the perspective found among the wider science community and even among leaders in the atheist movement. The reality of this perceptual gap was…
March 28, 2008
From E.O. Wilson's appearance last year on PBS Bill Moyers talking about the common moral obligation among atheists and evangelicals to take collective action on the environment:
Let us-- in the service of a transcendent moral obligation and concern put aside our differences for the time being and…
March 26, 2008
Caitlin Wall, one of the students in my Political Communication seminar this semester, has embarked on a very successful job as an international affairs blogger for Foreign Policy magazine. Caitlin's latest blog post is sure to interest Framing Science readers. She analyzes the challenge to Al Gore…
March 26, 2008
Two weeks ago, I spent my spring break at the Exploratorium, as a visiting Osher Fellow. One of the projects I consulted on was the Exploratorium's "evidence" project, an exciting initiative that will provide Web and floor content introducing the public to how science works as a process and how…
March 25, 2008
Speculation mounts as to whether Gore will endorse either Obama or Clinton in the Democratic Primary race. My suggestion would be that he stay out of election politics in 2008, except to try to raise the profile of climate change in a non-partisan way.
As I describe in this column and in several…
March 25, 2008
Last week Pew released an in depth survey of national and local print and TV reporters, editors, and producers. Among the findings, Pew describes that journalists at national news organizations have become considerably more pessimistic about the state of their profession since 2004. By roughly two…
March 23, 2008
If you haven't seen this clip yet, above is a preview of the central message on how "Big Science" views religion in the documentary Expelled. There's little work needed on the part of the producers, since the message is spelled out via the interviews provided by PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins.…
March 23, 2008
While the PZ Myers Affair dominates discussion at Scienceblogs this weekend, it's important to remind ourselves that there is an invisible middle of perspectives from scientists, atheists and the religious that emphasizes shared common values rather than the continual drum beat of conflict. Indeed…
March 20, 2008
In the March 14 issue of Science, a letter was published responding to our April 2007 Policy Forum essay and our October 2007 cover article at The Scientist. In her letter, Ruth Cronje emphasizes that it is important for the public to understand science as a process and method, a goal that is best…
March 20, 2008
At the popular site Ars Technica, science editor John Timmer pens a detailed summary of the "Communicating Science in a Religious America" panel held at last month's AAAS meetings. The article is also picked up by Slashdot.
March 17, 2008
Pew has released its annual "State of the Media" report with detailed summaries of their content analysis on each sector of the news media. I will be blogging about this report over the next couple of weeks, but for now, consider one of the more interesting findings from the analysis of cable news…
March 10, 2008
Student Pugwash has launched a very interesting science, environment, and technology guide for young voters. Press release below.
Student Pugwash USA Launches Science Policy Election Guide for Young Voters
Washington, DC (March 5, 2008): Addressing questions about climate change, energy security,…
March 7, 2008
In its latest issue, Time magazine runs a feature on the impacts of social issue dramas such as Blood Diamond and documentaries such as Inconvenient Truth. It's an area where I am conducting ongoing research evaluating the impacts of such movies across audiences, news coverage, and the policy…
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…
March 6, 2008
Yesterday PRI's The World ran a five minute news report (audio) on The Heartland Institute's climate change conference to which I contributed analysis. Also at their web site, they feature an extended 6 minute interview where I provide further background and analysis on the Heartland Institute's…
March 6, 2008
In his regular column at Nature this week, David Goldston weighs in on the themes discussed at the AAAS panel "Communicating Science in a Religious America," which Goldston moderated. In the column titled "The Scientist Delusion," Goldston notes that even very religious publics often strongly…