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Do Scientists Understand the Public?

Posted by timothy on from the to-a-high-degree-of-probability-no dept.

Mab_Mass writes "The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has an interesting article on the relationship between scientists and the public. [Here's the paper itself, as a PDF.] Rather than point the finger at an 'ignorant' public, this article chastises the scientists for a poor understanding of how to communicate with non-technical people. With a look at the issues of climate change, nuclear waste disposal, genetics, and the future of the Internet, the article provides examples of how the experts in these fields are failing to present their message in a way that encourages public discussion and support."

2 of 511 comments (clear)

  1. Climate change by Ash-Fox · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Rather than point the finger at an 'ignorant' public, this article chastises the scientists for a poor understanding of how to communicate with non-technical people. With a look at the issues of climate change

    Well, let's take a look at climate change:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8NFoaClXH0
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svsSon9_zL4
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYvbibO-SlI

    Well, no wonder why they aren't reaching people really - It's mostly bullshit science.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  2. Re:Hmmph. by Americano · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I'll reiterate the final part of what you're responding to, this time in big bold letters:

    Learning to listen to the question being asked and understand *what is really being asked* is important. Listening is an important communication skill too.

    And your response is *exactly* the type of confusing, jargon-filled response that I'm criticizing. "Well 1000 gigabytes is a terabyte, and you might see terabyte drives out there too... except it's really 1024, not 1000, because of binary numbers, where everything's a power of 2. And it's possible that less gigabytes could fit more individual photos than individual videos, because of the amount of data in the types of files, and the encoding and compression various filetypes use..."

    This is *EXACTLY* the problem I'm talking about, thank you for giving an example. You make the answer needlessly complex in some sort of "look how smart I am" wankfest.