Call for Abstracts
Session PA 02: Educating the Public About Science through the Media:
Lessons Learned and Ways Forward
American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2006 Fall Meeting
11-15 December 2006
San Francisco, California
Abstract Submission Deadlines:
Friday, 1 September 2006 (mail)
Thursday, 7 September 2006 (online)
For further information, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=173
You are invited to submit an abstract to the following special session
at this year's American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting:
Session PA 02: Educating the Public About Science through the Media:
Lessons Learned and Ways Forward
Session Description:
A succession of polls over the past few years appear to suggest that the
public feel under-informed about science and research, and that younger
members of society are turning away from studying science. Perhaps
nowhere is the discrepancy greater between what we know and what the
public perceives is known than in the issue of climate change. Nowhere
are the changes occurring faster than across the Arctic, yet the general
public remains largely unaware or unconcerned about these changes.
The above implications are of concern. If we as a scientific community
cannot communicate the excitement and importance of our work to the
general public, the danger is that we will lose the knowledge-based
society that has built the civilization we enjoy today. Although the
media are just one avenue we can use to excite and educate the public,
the ways of communicating have increased significantly over the past few
years. In addition to traditional print, radio, and television, the
world wide web has provided opportunities to develop websites, virtual
fieldtrips, online lectures, and podcasts of interviews, often all on
personal or dedicated websites.
For this session, organizers solicit papers from researchers who have
had their research examined in the media, either in high-profile,
national settings or through local, web-based, or other non-traditional
media. Authors are encouraged to describe their experiences and give
guidance on how to effectively use the media to offer insight into the
scientific process and the value of the results.
Conveners:
Chris Turney
University of Wollongong
E-mail: turney [at] uow.edu.au
Gifford Miller
University of Colorado at Boulder
E-mail: gmiller [at] colorado.edu