Public lecture given 10/11/14 at Maynooth University for Science Week 2014 http://thesciencebit.net

1. Adventures in Science Communication
Brian Hughes

2. http://goo.gl/K94W0A

3. http://goo.gl/C1AzL3

4. http://goo.gl/C1AzL3

5. What Scientists Look Like

6. What Scientists Look Like

7. What Scientists Look Like

8. Non-specialists’ assumptions about science
• Misconceptions
– Research is a linear process
of discovery
– Research produces clear
results
– Research produces
consistent results
– All research is conducted the
same way (i.e., the researcher or
discipline doesn’t come into it)
– Researchers know more than
everyone else about a topic http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/scientists/in
dex.html

9. Actual epistemology of science
• Some philosophical assumptions
– Determinism
– Empiricism
– Skepticism
• Some methodological principles
– Observation
– Measurement
– Experimentation
• Some reasoning principles
– Parsimony
– Falsification
– Objectivity

10. News Reporting and science
• Reporting priorities
– Concrete, simple > opposite
– Time pressure, “Churnalism”
• Media triggers
– Relevance, currency
• Frames and metaphors
– Desire for narratives

11. When Reporting Priorities
Get In The Way of Good Reporting

12. http://goo.gl/3t5EBv

13. http://goo.gl/Uht3Yy

14. http://goo.gl/79So50

15. http://goo.gl/8qEE5c

18. http://goo.gl/mX2vwy

20. “…more than a quarter of women feel embarrassed at having to pull out their reading
glasses in restaurants and supermarkets as they feel it’s a clear sign they are older, knocking
their confidence, and adding to their ‘invisibility’…”
http://goo.gl/HGn8Ly

21. http://goo.gl/HGn8Ly

22. Scientists say the funniest things
Aha ha

23. Scientists say the funniest things
Burgeranus

24. Scientists say the funniest things
“Fukalite”
“Fucitol”
“Fuchsite”
“Fucol”
Escherichia coli K-12 substr. MG1655 Gene: “fucU”

25. “Men Who Have Sex With Men”
Winder (2006)
Mills et al. (2004). American Journal of Psychiatry, 161(2), 278-285.
Winder (2006). UNAIDS/06.25E
Mills et al. (2004)

26. Churnalism
From the media interview
“We have already distanced
ourselves from this claim as it is
an incorrect interpretation of
our data... we cannot say what
is the cause and what is the
effect”
From the Abstract
“a vegetarian diet is associated
with poorer health…Therefore,
public health programs are
needed in order reduce the
health risk due to nutritional
factors”
http://goo.gl/DkGk72

27. Churnalism
http://goo.gl/Jc3wYf

28. When Reporting is Driven By
Triggers rather than News

29. Media Triggers
120
100
80
60
40
20
Shanahan & Good (2000). Public Understanding of Science, 9, 285-295.
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
0
NY Times
Wash Post
NY
DC

30. http://goo.gl/sJuREK

31. http://goo.gl/sJuREK
http://scac-irib.univ-rouen.fr/

32. http://goo.gl/tpy0sC

33. http://goo.gl/K4Rkr2

34. When Narrative Frames are more
Important than Content

35. Media Frames
Nanotech
Social
consequences
GM food
Safety
Archaeology
Empiricism
vs. Custom

36. Headline inflation
http://goo.gl/1DH3fl

37. Headline inflation
http://goo.gl/1DH3fl

38. Socially conservative frame
http://goo.gl/1DH3fl

39. Socially liberal frame
http://goo.gl/BduXy
http://goo.gl/Wgb2J

40. Middle class frame
http://goo.gl/GyT0I
http://goo.gl/BJ9XY

41. Technosceptic frame
http://goo.gl/x11Ao http://goo.gl/Q8L7y

42. Technosceptic frame
http://goo.gl/poES4J http://goo.gl/AikUFk
http://goo.gl/SReC0 http://goo.gl/s5ZjvG

43. February 28, 1998

47. BMJ (2011), 8 Jan & 15 Jan

48. Anti-vaccination arguments: 19th century
1878, National Anti-Argument Compulsory Vaccination Reporter
“…diptheria, erysipelas, and not unfrequently
abscesses...diarrhoae, bronchitis, convultions…”
“saturating the small-pox [vaccine] with carbolic
acid…a virulent poison [that] enters the blood”
“Epidemics still continue to break out…”
.
“The duration of protection be limited…can the
short-lived protection be expected to guard us?”
“Friends, this medical despotism is a hard,
materialistic, infidel thing…”
“insults every human being…despotism, injustice
and tyranny…”
Vaccines cause illnesses
Vaccines contain toxic
additives
Vaccines are ineffective
Vaccine immunity is
temporary
Vaccines are promulgated
solely for (others’) profit
State promotion of
vaccination is totalitarian
“…a substitute…for faithful obedience to the
sacred laws of health…”
A healthy lifestyle is better
than any vaccine
Wolfe, R.M., & Sharp, L. K. (2002). British Medical Journal, 325, 430-432.
http://goo.gl/sfnhdc

49. Anti-vaccination arguments: 21st century
2002, Argument various websites cited by Wolfe & Sharp
“The Orwellian spectable of monopolistic and
oligopolistic pharmaceutical manufacturers…”
State promotion of
vaccination is totalitarian
“manufacturers use the government to say ‘you
must buy my product and inject it into your
body’”
Vaccines are promulgated
solely for (others’) profit
“...significant amounts of highly toxic substances
such as mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde.”
Vaccines contain toxic
additives
“personal hygiene & diet stop diseases, folks, not
injecting virulent genetic material into yr veins”
A healthy lifestyle is better
than any vaccine
“The vaccine requires multiple boosters
throughout life…”
Vaccine immunity is
temporary
“…studies have shown that vaccination has been
unreliable as a means of preventing disease”
Vaccines are ineffective
“…autism, hyperactivity, ADHD, dyslexia,
allergies, cancer, and other conditions…”
Vaccines cause illnesses
Wolfe, R.M., & Sharp, L. K. (2002). British Medical Journal, 325, 430-432.
http://goo.gl/sfnhdc

50. What To Do?

51. Scientific
literacy for
journalists
Media literacy
for scientists
http://www.smbc-comics.com/

52. Sci Comm Activism
http://bloggingwithoutablog.com/

53. Scientific literacy
at the
population level:
enhances
society and
empowers individuals
http://ed.fnal.gov/projects/scientists/index.html

54. Thank you!
Brian Hughes
@b_m_hughes
http://thesciencebit.net