The communication landscape for biotechnology has increasingly gotten complicated.Information moves from one point to the next so fast thanks to the internet, the public is demanding more transparency of the work scientists are conducting in biotechnology and there is an emerging and more organized propaganda machinery aiming to discredit biotechnology.So are the players in the sector making the right moves?Dr. Margaret Karembu, Director ISAAA AfriCenter explains all this in the presentation.

1. Biotech Communication Stakeholders
Experience-sharing workshop
Margaret Karembu, PhD
Director, ISAAA Africenter
m.karembu@cgiar.org
VIRCA II Communication Strategy
14th September 2012, Nairobi, Kenya

2. Setting the Pace
Biotech Communications Landscape I SAAA
The Fantasies/Fairy tales
The Reality

3. The Networked World
Information
Epicenter Europe Node
(5 people;
$350K Annual budget)
Africa Node
ISAAA Crop Biotech Update Files

4. Biotechnology has generated a
network of opinions
Miracle or
Monster?
and…varied perceptions on risks and benefits

5. Then…non-verbal communications
shaping perceptions I SAAA

6. Non-Verbal Communication..
colour scheme? I SAAA

7. Response from Chairman Parliamentary
Committee on Agriculture I SAAA

8. ..and then mass media sensations thro
fantasies, myths, fairy tales
Are you eating
science’s mistakes??
Creating:
Fear
Anxiety
Outrage
Mistrust

9. Leading to: Communication
Difficulties
• Selective listening/reading
• Hearing things not said
• Emphasizing the negative
• Misinterpretations
• Feelings overrule facts
We cannot not communicate!

10. Reading from the same script…
…but reading different messages
Workshop rationale..
10
Source: Jane Gitau, ILRI

11. General Objective
Share experiences
in communicating
various biotech
projects, identify
areas of possible
convergence,
messaging and
partnerships