# Presentation: 444122

## Slide 1

## Why Communicate Your Research to the Public 

- Why Communicate Your Research to the Public

- Leslie Fink
- Office of Legislative and Public Affairs
- National Science Foundation

## Key Points 

- Key Points

- Explain why sharing your research with a broader audience benefits both you and the public
- Discuss tools to make it happen

## "We've arranged a global civilization in which the most crucial elements ... profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power will blow up in our faces .....“

*Carl Sagan***, ***The Demon-Haunted World*

- "We've arranged a global civilization in which the most crucial elements ... profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power will blow up in our faces .....“

**Notes:**
To me, we’re here because we want to prevent an explosion. Not vinegar and baking soda. Not sodium and water. Not even the reactions between atomic particles. We’re here because we want to prevent the explosion Carl Sagan predicted will blow up in our faces. 

Why are you here? [Ask the audience.]

## National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Very Large Array, Socorro, NM

**National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Very Large Array, Socorro, NM**

## Slide 6

## Slide 7

## In 2003, the federal government provided an estimated 61 percent of the funding for research and development performed at academic institutions.

**In 2003, the federal government provided an estimated 61 percent of the funding for research and development performed at academic institutions.**

- SRS InfoBrief, NSF 04-307: U.S. R&D Projected to Have Grown Marginally in 2003

##  Annual budget of about $5.8   billion

** ****Funds about  20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted at academic institutions**

**NSF Vital ****Statistics**

**Notes:**
NCI FY 06 request is $4.8B
NHLBI FY06 request is $2.9B

## NSF Research Areas

**Arctic and Antarctic **
**Astronomy and Space     (ground telescopes)**
**Biology**
**Chemistry and Materials**
**Computing**
**Earth and Environment**
**Education (science and  **
**                    ****engineering)**

**Engineering**
**Mathematics**
**Nanoscience**
**People and Society**
**Physics**

## In 2001, 81 percent of NSF survey respondents agreed with the statement:

- “Even if it brings no immediate benefits, scientific research that advances the frontiers of knowledge is necessary and should be supported by the federal government.”

**Science and Engineering Indicators 2002**

## About 9 out of 10 adults report they are either very or moderately interested in new scientific discoveries and the use of new inventions and technologies.

**Science and Engineering Indicators 2002**

## Less than 15 percent feel very well informed about those subjects.

**Science and Engineering Indicators 2002**

##   5 percent could identify NIH

**Few Americans are able to name ****the two agencies that provide most ****of the funds for (basic) research.**

**  **5 percent could identify NIH
-   3 percent could identify NSF

- Research! America

## What is the name of the government agency that funds most of the basic research and educational programming in the sciences, mathematics and engineering in this country?

- 84 percent said they didn’t know.
- 14 percent said other.
- 2 percent knew NSF.

*Research!America, 2002*

## Percent of respondents who said the following occupations had very great prestige

- Scientists (57 percent)
- Teachers (49 percent)
- Doctors (42 percent)
- Member of Congress (30 percent)
- Engineer (28 percent)
- Journalist (15 percent)

*Research!America, 2004*

## Slide 17

## Slide 18

## “Scan the headlines of 2005 and one question seems inevitable: Will we recall this as the year when journalism in print began to die?”

- “Scan the headlines of 2005 and one question seems inevitable: Will we recall this as the year when journalism in print began to die?”

- The New York Times cut nearly 60 people from its newsroom.
- The Los Angeles Times cut 85 people.
- The San Jose Mercury News cut 16 percent.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer cut 15 percent (same amount five years earlier.
- Investors forced sale of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain.

- _[www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/](http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/)_

## “...we do see a seismic transformation in what and how people learn about the world around them. Power is moving away from journalists as gatekeepers over what the public knows. Citizens are assuming a more active role as assemblers, editors and even creators of their own news. Audiences are moving from old media such as television or newsprint to new media online. “

- “...we do see a seismic transformation in what and how people learn about the world around them. Power is moving away from journalists as gatekeepers over what the public knows. Citizens are assuming a more active role as assemblers, editors and even creators of their own news. Audiences are moving from old media such as television or newsprint to new media online. “

## Major Trends

**Major Trends**
- “In 2006, we see six new trends emerging that deserve highlighting and that add to the underlying trends transforming journalism we have noted in earlier reports:”

**More outlets are covering fewer stories.**
**The big-city metro paper may be most threatened. **
**The decades-long battle at the top between idealists and accountants is now over.  (Accountants won: Idealists 0.)**
**Traditional media appear to be moving toward technological innovation — finally**.
**The new aggregators (Google, Yahoo) are also playing with limited time.**
**How long it will take online journalism to become a major economic engine, and will it ever be as big as print or television?**

## “Today, technology is transforming citizens from passive consumers of news produced by professionals into active participants who can assemble their own journalism from disparate elements....

- “Today, technology is transforming citizens from passive consumers of news produced by professionals into active participants who can assemble their own journalism from disparate elements....
- “What was called journalism is only one part of the mix, and its role as intermediary and verifier, like the roles of other civic institutions, is weakening....”

## MSNBC July, August 2001

- INFORMATION CENTER / PRESS RELEASES
- INTERNET GROWING AS NEWS MEDIUM, AT TIMES EXCEEDING TRADITIONAL MEDIA USAGEBroadband Audience Maximizes Online News Usage with Rich Media, Streaming Video and Coverage of Live Events
- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Use of the Internet as a news source is approaching, and in some cases surpassing the use of traditional media, according to a recent study conducted for MSNBC.com by Market Facts Inc. Additionally, the survey concludes that broadband users (high speed Internet connections) are more likely to use streaming audio, video and rich media to optimize coverage of breaking news and live events.

## It is generally conceded that scientists and engineers have “somewhat of an image problem.”

**Science and Engineering Indicators 2002**

- The scientist is a man who wears a white coat and works in a laboratory. He is elderly or middle aged and wears glasses...He may wear a beard, may be...unkempt....He is surrounded by equipment...and spends his days doing experiments (Mead and Metraux, 1957).

**Notes:**
Why does public image matter?

Scientists represent the first line of communication about science to the generalpublic.
They can help the public understand the importance of science and appreciate its benefits.

The more appealing the image, the more likely people will listen to what is being said.

## Slide 25

## “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”

**“****We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”**
**                                                ****Albert Einstein**

## Characteristics of a Civic Scientist:

*Ben Franklin, Civic Scientist*
*Neal Lane*
*Physics Today, October 2003*

- Wisdom
- Science
- Communication

## “Franklin would suggest that scientists could benefit from a little Communications 101...lessons in how to communicate effectively with politicians and the general public about the essentials of science, without the esoteric details. “

- Neal Lane in *Benjamin Franklin, Civic Scientist, *2003

## Help Is On the Way!

## I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.

**I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.**

- Howard Beale in the movie “Network,” 1976

## Slide 31

## www.nsf.gov

**A Brief History of Communication Technology**

- Cave Drawings

- Hieroglyphics

- Clay Tablets

- Papyrus

- Smoke Signals

- Printing Press

- The Telegraph

## Intro to “Criterion 2”

- Proposals submitted to NSF are evaluated based on two criteria:
- Intellectual Merit
- Broader Impact

## Intellectual Merit 

- Intellectual Merit

**?**

## Broader Impacts

- Doh! I’ll have to eat more  cheeseburgers
- ... Cool.

## What NSF Really Says About Broader Impact 

- What NSF Really Says About Broader Impact

- Most proposers have little difficulty responding to the criterion relating to intellectual merit.
- Many proposers have difficulty understanding how to frame the broader impacts of the activities they propose to undertake.

## ...more

- ...more

- The examples provided below ...
- The list is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is any particular example relevant to all proposals.

- http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/broaderimpacts.pdf

## ...soooo...think outside the

- ...soooo...think outside the

**?**

## Taxpayer

**Taxpayer**

**Congress**

**NSF**

**Researcher**

## Slide 40

**Notes:**
It was some three decades ago, during the Watergate era, that Deep Throat told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward he had to “follow the money” to understand the scandal. 

## Slide 41

## ...Currently, 65% of the U.S. Internet population report regularly using the Internet as a source for news, exceeding magazines (58%), almost equal to radio (67%), and approaching network TV (89%) and cable (76%) usage.

- MSNBC/Market Facts, 2001

## Percentage of Population Ever Going Online

- Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, ’’Pew Research Biennial News Consumption Survey,’’ June 8, 2004

**Percentage of Population Ever Going Online**
- 1995-2004

## Percent of Internet Users Who Access News Online

**Percent of Internet Users Who Access News Online**
- Percent accessing news online ever or yesterday, 2000 to 2004

- Pew Internet and American Life Project tracking surveys

## Wait! I hear something. It appears to be from Texas . But I’m not familiar with the syntax.  

**Wait! I hear something. It appears to be from Texas . But I’m not familiar with the syntax.  **

**Ellie, your NSF grant said you were looking for intelligent life. **

## Slide 46

## Slide 47