Communicating Science: Professional, Popular, Literary
Cambridge University Press, 10/15/2009
EAN 9780521131728, ISBN10: 0521131723
Paperback, 350 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Governments and scientific establishments have been encouraging the development of professional and popular science communication. This book critically examines the origin of this drive to improve communication, and discusses why simply improving scientists' communication skills and understanding of their audiences may not be enough. Written in an engaging style, and avoiding specialist jargon, this book provides an insight into science's place in society by looking at science communication in three contexts: the professional patterns of communication among scientists, popular communication to the public, and science in literature and drama. This three-part framework shows how historical and cultural factors operate in today's complex communication landscape, and should be actively considered when designing and evaluating science communication. Ideal for students and practitioners in science, engineering and medicine, this book provides a better understanding of the culture, sociology and mechanics of professional and popular communication.
Introduction
what this book is about and why you might want to read it
Prologue
three orphans share a common paternity
professional science communication, popular journalism, and literary fiction are not as separate as they seem
Part I. Professional Science Communication
1. Spreading the word
the endless struggle to publish professional science
2. Walk like an Egyptian
the alien feeling of professional science writing
3. The future's bright? Professional science communication in the age of the internet
4. Counting the horse's teeth
professional standards in science's barter economy
5. Separating the wheat from the chaff
peer review on trial
Part II. Science for the Public
What Science Do People Need and How Might They Get It?
6. The Public Understanding of Science (PUS) movement and its problems
7. Public engagement with science and technology (PEST)
fine principle, difficult practice
8. Citizen scientists? Democratic input into science policy
9. Teaching and learning science in schools
implications for popular science communication
Part III. Popular Science Communication
The Press and Broadcasting
10. What every scientist should know about mass media
11. What every scientist should know about journalists
12. The influence of new media
13. How the media represents science
14. How should science journalists behave?
Part IV. The Origins of Science in Cultural Context
Five Historic Dramas
15. A terrible storm in Wittenberg
natural knowledge through sorcery and evil
16. A terrible storm in the Mediterranean
controlling nature with white magic and religion
17. Thieving magpies
the subtle art of false projecting
18. Foolish virtuosi
natural philosophy emerges as a distinct discipline but many cannot take it seriously
19. Is scientific knowledge 'true' or should it just be 'truthfully' deployed?
Part V. Science in Literature
20. Science and the Gothic
the three big nineteenth-century monster stories
21. Science fiction
serious literature of ideas or low-grade entertainment?
22. Science in British literary fiction
23. Science on stage
the politics and ethics of science in cultural and educational contexts.