Communicating Science

Nick's presentation on the public understanding of science was stimulating and suggesting because he gave us a thoughtful answer to the question about how to make science presentations for general audiences.

The starting point is to consider the different perspectives and processes related to scientists and policy-makers and, following this, also consider the resolutions for each group.

It seems to be obvious that while scientist focus on science details, learning, and probable outcomes, policy-makers focus on big issues, decisions, and results in yes/no terms. But sometimes we forget the no so obvious consequences of these in terms of communication. In other words, the distance between the specialized small peer groups' standard language vs. the need to reach general audience or the gap between longtime frames vs. the need of quick responses.

We learnt that in the attempt to communicate science to general audiences it is important:

• to take into account the broad societal issue implied;
  
• to provide background information that allow to understand the topic;
  
• to begin bringing the broad issue first and then to down (in a step-wise progression) to the specifics;
  
• to emphasize what has been learned over data and analysis;
• to qualify any speculative statement; and
• to incrementally bring the research findings back up to explain how the scientific findings address the broader societal issues.

Maybe the more important lesson Nick's presentation allowed us to learn is that scientists and policy-makers mutually need each other and both should make the effort of building a bridge between theirs approaches, perspectives, and processes in order to communicate to general audiences and to benefit society.


Reported by: Roberto Montes