framing
laelaps | November 1, 2007A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending one of the Science Communication Consortium's (SCC) panel discussions on communicating science (moderated by blogger Kate of The Anterior Commissure), and for those who missed the last one another discussion is fast approaching. On November 15th the SCC will host Dr. Lee Silver (Princeton - Molecular Biology), Dr. Gavin Schmidt (Goddard Institute for Space Studies - Climatology), and Dr. Wendy Chung (Columbia - Clinical and Molecular Genetics) at Rockefellar University in NYC to present their ideas on effectively communicating controversial…
laelaps | October 19, 2007While the a number of my classmates spent their evening at the football stadium I hopped the train to New York to attend the "How various media outlets are used to popularize, communicate, and promote science" panel discussion, part of a series in the Science Communication Consortium. Even though the discussion didn't necessarily answer the questions posed at the beginning of the seminar (namely where is science communication going, although Christopher Mims had a bit to say about this, as we'll see), there were some interesting points made all around.
Kitta MacPherson of the Newark Star…
mikethemadbiologist | October 16, 2007Once again, the science framing wars have flared up. While I'm not allergic to the concept of framing as some are, one of the major reasons why I'm not a big fan of dwelling on the topic is that obsessing over language reminds me of the late 80s and 90s when the Left won the battle of words, and the fundamentalist Uruk-hai took over the damn country.
I've been doing some thinking about the 'progressive' concern with media communication (including my own)--and it is important, no doubt about it. But, as the 2006 elections have shown, if words aren't turned into the exercise of power, there…
laelaps | October 10, 2007On October 18th (next Thursday) the NYAS Science Allicance will be presenting a panel discussion entitled "How Various Media Outlets are Used to Popularize, Communicate & Promote Science" at NYU. Christopher Mims (Scientific American), Ann Marie Cunningham (NPR's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday), Kitta MacPherson (the Star Ledger's Science section), and David Levine (Office of Communications and Marketing for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation) will be the panelists, although I'm a bit disappointed to see that blogs aren't being represented on the panel and science…
mikethemadbiologist | October 8, 2007Both Kevin Drum and digby argue that Senator Clinton's 'electability' problem is due to Republican sliming and isn't really a factor. Drum:
Hillary, by contrast, is polarizing not because she wants to be, but because the right-wing attack machine made her that way. She's "polarizing" only because a certain deranged slice of conservative nutjobs detest her.
And guess what? By this standard, Jimmy Carter is polarizing. Bill Clinton is polarizing. Al Gore is polarizing. John Kerry is polarizing. Do you see the trend here?
There are plenty of good reasons to oppose Hillary Clinton. But anyone…
pharyngula | September 1, 2007Mooney says that because polls show that Americans are so blinded by religion that they would choose the words of a bloody-handed Middle Eastern sky god over the evidence of science, Dawkins and all us uncompromising atheists are wrong in our tactics. We are henceforth to heed the words of Nisbet and stop confronting people on their religious biases.
Huh?
But that's exactly the problem that we're addressing — that people will foolishly prefer "white-beard-in-the-sky-guy" over reality. And the message he takes home from this is that we're wrong? This is nuts. I read that poll and it says we…
cmooney | August 30, 2007
[Matt Nisbet battles PZ Myers (artist's rendition).]
Uh oh. There is some heavy talk coming out of some folks about this Minnesota thing in September.
Greg Laden:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Scoundrels and Aristocrats ...
... In this corner, we have Author and Journalist Chris the Madman Mooney.
... In this corner, we have American University Professor Matthew The Knucklebreaker Nisbet
... and in this corner we have Anthropologist Greg Prettyboy Laden.
And it gets better: Now PZ might be coming:
There is going to be a melee in Minneapolis, a testicle-twister in the Twin Cities,…
mikethemadbiologist | August 1, 2007The blogosphere is in a wee bit of a tizzy over a Vanity Fair article that hints Giuliani might be having an(other) affair, this time with advisor and motivational speaker, Starr Shephard. Personally, as long as he's not doing it in public, I don't care who Giuliani is or is not screwing, although the whole subject does generate some unappealing mental images. But the motivational guru part is disturbing.
A quick use of the Google found an advertisement placed in the Village Voice by Shephard:
Did You See or read "The Secret"? STARR is here to serve you in order for you to light the flame…
mikethemadbiologist | July 25, 2007It isn't always the message, sometimes it's the medium. Or the media actually. Framing only goes so far. Often, getting your message out there comes down to schmoozing, intimidation, and hard work. This applies to politics and science. The Daily Howler rebuts neuroscientist Drew Westen's take on the Bush-Gore debates of 2000 in Westen's book,The Political Brain
(italics mine):
For example, he explains what he thinks Gore should have said at several points in the Bush-Gore debates. We've spent a lot of time on the incidents he discusses; we think his examples are highly salient. But we'…