Enviro/Science Reporting
nisbetmc | February 6, 2010
On Thursday, at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, I served as one of the panelists at the event "The Public Divide over Climate Change: Science, Skeptics and the Media." The two hour session drew roughly 100 attendees, was organized and moderated by Belfer Center fellow Cristine Russell, and featured Andrew Revkin of the New York Times' Dot Earth blog and Thomas Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at the Kennedy School.
Audio of the panel is available at the Kennedy School web site and the event was covered in detail by the Columbia Journalism Review and the…
nisbetmc | February 2, 2010
In his State of the Union speech last week, President Obama called for significant government investment in nuclear energy, telling Congress that "to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country." The declaration brought members from both parties to their feet with some of the strongest applause of the evening (video above.)
This week, as the NY Times reports, the Administration in its proposed budget plans to triple the size of the Energy…
nisbetmc | September 9, 2009In a provocative article published last year, Nature columnist David Goldston tackled the topic of science and religion, focusing on the implications for public engagement and emerging policy debates. In the column, Goldston used as a backdrop the "Communicating Science in a Religious America" panel that I organized and that he moderated at the 2008 AAAS meetings in Boston.
Yesterday, in recognition of the column, Goldston was awarded an honorable mention in the National Science Writers Association's annual Science & Society Journalism Awards. Double congratulations are in order to…
nisbetmc | August 24, 2009
This semester, I am serving on the search committee for an exciting new tenure track position in science, environmental, and/or health journalism. Our School of Communication at American University is a leading laboratory for professional education, research, and innovation in the fields of journalism, public communication, and film and digital media. The new faculty member would have the opportunity to train the next generation of science, environmental, and health reporters while working in Washington, DC on innovative projects that address major trends and challenges in the field.
See…
nisbetmc | May 19, 2009
Fronting the NY Times today is a preview of a bold new strategy for engaging hard to reach audiences on science. As the NY Times describes, today's media event that unveils the fossilized remains of the monkey like creature Darwinius masillae features a unique collaboration between the History Channel, the open-access journal PLoS One, and the American Museum of Natural History.
Along with today's publication at PLoS and the media unveiling at AMNH, there will be a two hour documentary on Monday at the History Channel, an exclusive arrangement with ABC News to appear on Good Morning America…
nisbetmc | May 11, 2009Over at Columbia Journalism Review, Curtis Brainard has an excellent round-up and analysis of what might be afoot at Scientific American as it merges editorial direction with Nature Publishing Group and as longtime editor John Rennie steps down.
nisbetmc | March 12, 2009
The struggles of the science beat at local newspapers have little or nothing to do with scientific illiteracy or public respect for science and much more to do with the economic climate and a more general and profound absence of public appreciation for the role of the press in civic life. Consider this stark finding from a just released Pew report: Less than a majority of Americans believe that the loss of their local newspaper would critically harm the health of their community.
So what's going on here? Science has been and remains the dominant force in American culture. Research shows that…
nisbetmc | March 11, 2009
A Gallup survey report released yesterday finds that a record 41% of Americans--and 66% of Republicans--now say that news reports of climate change are exaggerated. I first spotted this troubling trend in a 2007 paper analyzing twenty years of public opinion about climate change. This latest survey reinforces my fear that climate advocates have fallen into a dangerous communication trap.
At the root of this growing perception is something I blogged about earlier this week: As long as science is communicated as the principal reason compelling policy action--and this "compelling" science…
nisbetmc | March 9, 2009Good news on the science beat front. Cristine Russell at the Columbia Journalism Review has the details on an innovative move by the Washington Post to consolidate coverage of science, the environment, and health under one editor.
nisbetmc | February 26, 2009
In the U.S., there is often the false assumption that Europeans are somehow more engaged and supportive of science than Americans. Yet, as I discuss in several studies and as I have written about in articles, instead of science literacy, the same generalizable interaction between values, social identity, and media portrayals drive European perceptions of science debates. Indeed, cross-national survey studies show that while science remains the most widely admired and respected institution in American society, Europeans are far more ambivalent about the costs, risks, and benefits of science…
nisbetmc | February 18, 2009There's a must read Shorenstein Center white paper out by Time magazine contributor Eric Pooley, who spent Fall 2008 at Harvard researching how the news media covered the run up to the vote on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (paper, press release, Slate commentary).
Note Pooley's conclusion about the new false balance in news coverage of climate change:
Pooley concluded that the press misrepresented the economic debate over carbon cap and trade, failed to perform the basic service of making climate policy and its economic impact understandable to the reader, and allowed opponents…
nisbetmc | February 17, 2009Sometimes I just don't get it. Whether it is climate change, evolution, or vaccination, the more literal minded among science bloggers and pundits typically blame science journalists for breakdowns in public communication.
Yet as I discuss in a forthcoming article at Skeptical Inquirer magazine, constantly blaming the media messenger deflects attention away from the fact that scientists and experts themselves make mistakes when it comes to public engagement (or that literal minded bloggers create more heat than understanding). As I often like to point out in talks, research shows that…
nisbetmc | February 11, 2009I'm back in the office after a great event last night at the American Museum of Natural History. Close to 100 attendees came out to the magnificent venue for a panel discussion on media coverage of climate change. Not surprisingly, a majority of the attendees were journalists, journalism students, bloggers, or university and NGO-types working on climate change communication.
Last night's themes will be followed up on in two panels at the annual AAAS meetings in Chicago. At CJR's The Observatory, Curtis Brainard has the details:
Two other events will take place Friday at the annual meeting of…
nisbetmc | February 10, 2009For readers in the New York area, I will be on a panel tonight at the American Museum of Natural History, focusing on climate change and the news media. The panel starts at 630 and features Andrew Revkin of the NY Times, Bud Ward of the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, Bill Blakemore of ABC News, and Diane Hawkins-Cox of CNN. Go here for more information.
nisbetmc | January 15, 2009There was a clear consensus focus to presentations and comments at the first day of the Venice workshop on science communication and public engagement: The biggest future challenge will be the increasing privatization of research and the resulting "hyping" of scientific claims.
In the U.S., when it comes to science communication, conventional wisdom laments either the politicization of science, religious opposition, or perceived public ignorance.
But for many science communication experts, including those here in Venice, the biggest threat to continued public support and trust in science…
nisbetmc | January 15, 2009What's a vision of the future of science journalism? Consider Yale Environment 360. The university and foundation-sponsored online magazine and social media site is updated daily and weekly, publishing feature reporting, analysis, and longer opinion articles by leading journalists, scientists, and policy experts. It also hosts a daily blog tracking environmental and science issues. Longer articles feature a participatory user comment section.
Consider the value of today's featured article at Environment 360, a lengthy preview of Obama's energy plan. It's written by Keith Schneider, a former…
nisbetmc | January 13, 2009Yesterday I turned in a short essay to the BA's Science & Public Affairs magazine about science communication in the Obama era. In the essay, among recommendations,I floated a proposal that is directly relevant to the future of science journalism and that has been on my mind as I work with colleagues at the Center for Social Media on an analysis of how public media can adapt to and take advantage of the digital landscape.
Here's what I wrote:
Community initiatives of a different kind should focus on building a "participatory" media infrastructure for science and environmental information…
nisbetmc | January 7, 2009
Kudos to the Obama administration for approaching one of America's top science communicators for the position of Surgeon General. Not only could CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta be a visible and persuasive media presence on heath care reform, but he will also hopefully use the authority of the Surgeon General's office to emphasize the health impacts of climate change.
As I have written in the past, by re-framing climate change as a public health problem, there is an important new emphasis on the linkages to infectious diseases, heat stroke, and other familiar health problems, especially among the…
nisbetmc | January 7, 2009A reminder about the outstanding panel to be held tomorrow at NSF headquarters.
nisbetmc | December 22, 2008From an email sent out this morning by NSF. If readers can make it, this panel is definitely worth attending.
NSF to Host Panel Discussion on Communicating Climate Change
Journalists Andy Revkin (New York Times), John Carey (Business Week), Tom Rosenstiel (Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism) to join climate scientists Michael Mann, Maureen Raymo on Jan. 8, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Leading journalists and climate scientists will headline a January 8, 2009, program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Va., to discuss a newly released book on climate change…