# Presentation: 420631

## The Communication of Space and Earth Science Information to Policy-relevant Audiences:

**A strategy to enhance the scientific and ecological literacy of **
**national policy leaders and policy-interested citizens**

**Jon D. Miller**
**Professor and Director**
**Center for Biomedical Communication **
**The Feinberg School of Medicine**
**Northwestern University**

## Almost all human communication is purposeful.  

**When we seek to transmit ideas or information or feelings, we generally know who we would like to receive the message and how we would like that person or group to respond. When we ask a question, we know what kind of information or response that we would like to have. **
**Infants make two kinds of noises. Some noises are an effort to indicate that they are hungry, uncomfortable, scared, or tired and they want someone to do something. But infants also make some noises because they enjoy the sound. We refer to this kind of noise as babbling. As infants grow into adults, they usually become more skilled in communicating messages and the proportion of babble drops substantially.**
**Generally, organizations seek to improve their ability to communicate ideas and messages as they mature. Some organizations and agencies, however, like to hear their own voice and continue to produce a significant level of babble.**

## My purpose today is to provide a framework for thinking about the purposes for the communication of space science and earth science information and to identify the audiences relevant to those purposes. I will also talk about some strategies for communicating messages to relevant audiences.

## It seems to me that there are three primary purposes for the communication of space science and earth science information by the NASA and Goddard communities.

**First, as a governmental agency, it is important to inform decision-makers, policy leaders, and interested citizens about the need for space exploration and for the observation and monitoring of our Earth and solar system and the value of the resulting advances in space science and earth science.**
**Second, it is important to inform decision-makers, relevant policy leaders, and interested citizens about the progress, achievements, and problems associated with the exploration of space and the understanding of our solar system and our home planet. **
**Third, it is important in a democratic society to share the awe, the wonder, and the excitement of space exploration and our growing knowledge of our universe, our solar system, our Sun, and our home planet with all students and adults in this country and throughout the world. **

## There are four primary audiences that four major audiences that need to understand the need for the program, the value of the results, and the progress and problems associated with your programs.

**Decision-makers in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.**
**Policy leaders in corporations, universities, professional societies, and environmental organizations. **
**Citizens who are interested in and attentive to science, technology, space, or environmental policy issues.**
**All children and adults in the United States and throughout the world.**

## The critical question is how to convey information and messages to these audiences in a manner that will be understandable by the recipients and that will serve the purposes and needs of NASA and Goddard. 

**We will want to look at the current levels of knowledge and current attitudes for each of our four potential audiences.**
**Prior turning to that task, it is important to take a short detour and talk about how science and technology policy is made in democratic political systems like the United States. **

## It is useful to think about how we make public policy in the United States.

**Elections are important because they determine the individuals and parties that control major branches of government. Selecting the occupants of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives are important decisions.**
**Presidential elections are usually determined by a small set of broad issues and by public perceptions of leadership characteristics and ability. **
**Most legislative seats are “safe” and fewer than 10% of legislative seats at the national level are at risk each year.**
**This electoral system produces a set of office holders and provides some broad policy framework for the country, but  it sometimes produces policy gridlock. It usually provides limited guidance on specific science or technology or space policy issues.**

## On specialized issues such as science, technology, and space policy, elections provide limited guidance. 

**No presidential candidate has ever been elected or defeated because of a science policy issue. **
**No House or Senate candidate has ever been elected or defeated over a science policy issue. **

## Science, technology, and space policy issues are decided outside the electoral process. Rosenau calls this “citizenship between elections.”

## A stratified model of the formulation of public policy

**Decision Makers**

**Policy Leaders**

**Attentive Public**

**Interested Public **

**Residual Public**

**A stratified model of the formulation of public policy**

## A stratified model of the formulation of public policy

**Decision Makers**

**Policy Leaders**

**Attentive Public**

**Interested Public **

**Residual Public**

**A stratified model of the formulation of public policy**

## For science, technology, and space policy, the decision-makers include:

**The President and his cabinet members with responsibilities for science, technology, and space policy and the heads of selected agencies. **
**The leadership of the House or Senate and the members of House and Senate committees that have responsibility for science, technology, and space policy matters. **
**On some occasions, the members of the Supreme Court and judges in the federal judiciary. **
**The total number of decision-makers in science, technology, and space policy is approximately 200.**

## A stratified model of the formulation of public policy

**Decision Makers**

**Policy Leaders**

**Attentive Public**

**Interested Public **

**Residual Public**

**A stratified model of the formulation of public policy**

## For science, technology, and space policy, the policy leaders include:

**The officers and board members of national scientific and engineering societies and associations.**
**Members of the NAS, NAE, and IOM.**
**Officers and board members of major corporations involved in science or engineering.**
**Officers of universities engaged in a significant level of scientific or engineering research.**
**Winners of a Nobel Prize or a Fields Medal.**
**Individuals who testified before a congressional committee (House or Senate) on a science policy matter.**
**Members of major executive branch science advisory committees at the secretarial or agency level.**
**Approximately 8,500 individuals qualified as a science policy leader in 2003.**

## Within this pyramidal system, policy leaders play a critical role by:

**Monitoring public policy from the perspective of the scientific or energy community and defining critical issues that need to be addressed.**
**Organizing other leaders to identify policy solutions and to advance those policy solutions to decision-makers.**
**Negotiating with decision-makers about policy choices.**
**Organizing the appropriate attentive public or publics when direct negotiations with policy makers are not productive or when there is significant disagreement among policy leaders themselves.**

## A stratified model of the formulation of public policy

**Decision Makers**

**Policy Leaders**

**Attentive Public**

**Interested Public **

**Residual Public**

**A stratified model of the formulation of public policy**

## The attentive public for science, technology, and space policy includes all adults who:

**report that they are “****very interested****” in new scientific discoveries, new inventions and technologies, or space exploration, and **
**indicate that they are “****very well informed****” about either new scientific discoveries, or new inventions and technologies, or space exploration, and **
**are regular readers of a daily newspaper, a weekly news magazine, or a monthly science magazine; regular viewers of television news programming; or frequent users of the Internet to obtain science-related information. **
**In 2004, 12% of American adults were attentive to science, technology, space, or environmental policy issues, or about 26 million individuals. **

## A stratified model of the formulation of public policy

**Decision Makers**

**Policy Leaders**

**Attentive Public**

**Interested Public **

**Residual Public**

**A stratified model of the formulation of public policy**

## A stratified model of the formulation of public policy

**Decision Makers**

**Policy Leaders**

**Attentive Public**

**Interested Public **

**Residual Public**

**A stratified model of the formulation of public policy**

## Strategies. 

**I want to talk about strategies for communicating with each of the four audiences that I think are critical to your mission and your program.**
**I will start with decision-makers and then talk about science and space policy leaders.**
**I will look at the attentive publics for science, technology, space, and environmental issues.**
**And I will conclude by talking about the messages that you should direct to the broader or general public. **

## As an executive branch agency, NASA must report first and primarily to the President.  

**It is important to communicate your successes and your problems to the White House and NASA headquarters is responsible for that linkage.**
**It is also important to communicate to other executive branch agencies and to share results and opportunities.**
**All of your collaborators, contractors, and grantees have two Senators and at least one House member.**
**And all of you belong to scientific groups and organizations that sometimes communicate with both executive and legislative branch decision-makers. **

## Science and technology policy leaders, space policy leaders, and environmental policy leaders are a second important audience with whom you need to communicate.  

**In the stratified model of policy formulation that I outlined earlier, these leaders play an important role in the policy making process.**
**NASA has tended to take the support of the scientific community for granted.**
**The results of recent national studies of science and space policy leaders point to some serious problems that need to be addressed.**

## Leadership attitudes toward selected space policy issues.

|  | Strong
Agree | Agree | Not
Sure | Disagree | Strong
Disagree |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Current orbital technologies such as weather satellites and communication satellites are essential economic resources and should be continued and improved. |  |  |  |  |  |
| Space Policy Leaders |    81% |    17% |      2% |      0% |      0% |
| Science Policy Leaders | 73 | 23 |   3 |   1 |   0 |
| The United States should make the investments necessary to sustain a vigorous program of human and robotic space exploration and space sciences research. |  |  |  |  |  |
| Space Policy Leaders | 40 | 39 | 10 | 10 |   1 |
| Science Policy Leaders | 15 | 34 | 25 | 19 |   7 |
| It is important for the United States to maintain international leadership in human space exploration. |  |  |  |  |  |
| Space Policy Leaders | 34 | 37 | 15 | 11 |   3 |
| Science Policy Leaders | 12 | 34 | 24 | 20 | 10 |

**Leadership attitudes toward selected space policy issues.**

## Leadership attitudes to other space policy issues.

|  | Strong
Agree | Agree | Not
Sure | Disagree | Strong
Disagree |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The International Space Station is an important and promising laboratory for scientific research. |  |  |  |  |  |
| Space Policy Leaders | 12 | 39 | 16 | 18 | 15 |
| Science Policy Leaders |   8 | 29 | 21 | 23 | 19 |
| The United States should begin planning for a manned mission to Mars in the next 20 years. |  |  |  |  |  |
| Space Policy Leaders | 24 | 23 | 23 | 17 | 13 |
| Science Policy Leaders | 10 | 17 | 24 | 28 | 21 |
| NASA should limit human space exploration to Earth-orbit missions and use robotic missions for exploring in and beyond the solar system. |  |  |  |  |  |
| Space Policy Leaders | 19 | 24 | 13 | 28 | 16 |

**Leadership attitudes to other space policy issues.**

## Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.

|  | Space Policy Leaders | Science Policy Leaders |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic research on the human genome and its relationship to health and disease | 8.3 (.10) | 8.2 (.09) |
| The development & improvement of fuel cells and other alternative energy sources | 8.1 (.10) | 8.3 (.08) |
| Disease-oriented biomedical research (apart from genomics) | 8.1 (.10) | 8.1 (.10) |
| Global climate change research | 7.5 (.12) | 7.4 (.11) |
| The development of nanotechnology | 7.4 (.11) | 7.2 (.10) |
| Basic biology research (apart from disease applications) | 7.3 (.10) | 7.6 (.09) |
| Earth science research, including oceanographic and polar research | 7.0 (.11) | 7.1 (.09) |
| The development of a new generation of space-based telescopes such as Hubble.... | 6.7 (.12) | 6.1 (.11) |
| The continuation of deep-space exploration | 6.7 (.13) | 5.6 (.13) |
| Defense-related research and development | 6.6 (.12) | 6.0 (.11) |
| Basic high energy physics such as the work at Fermi, Brookhaven, or CERN | 6.4 (.12) | 6.4 (.10) |
| The development of a new generation of space vehicles | 6.1 (.13) | 4.7 (.12) |
| Agricultural research focused on the genetic modification of plants and animals | 6.0 (.14) | 6.3 (.10) |
| The conduct of scientific research on the International Space Station | 4.4 (.15) | 3.9 (.13) |

**Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.**

## Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.

|  | Space Policy Leaders | Science Policy Leaders |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic research on the human genome and its relationship to health and disease | 8.3 (.10) | 8.2 (.09) |
| The development & improvement of fuel cells and other alternative energy sources | 8.1 (.10) | 8.3 (.08) |
| Disease-oriented biomedical research (apart from genomics) | 8.1 (.10) | 8.1 (.10) |
| Global climate change research | 7.5 (.12) | 7.4 (.11) |
| The development of nanotechnology | 7.4 (.11) | 7.2 (.10) |
| Basic biology research (apart from disease applications) | 7.3 (.10) | 7.6 (.09) |
| Earth science research, including oceanographic and polar research | 7.0 (.11) | 7.1 (.09) |
| The development of a new generation of space-based telescopes such as Hubble.... | 6.7 (.12) | 6.1 (.11) |
| The continuation of deep-space exploration | 6.7 (.13) | 5.6 (.13) |
| Defense-related research and development | 6.6 (.12) | 6.0 (.11) |
| Basic high energy physics such as the work at Fermi, Brookhaven, or CERN | 6.4 (.12) | 6.4 (.10) |
| The development of a new generation of space vehicles | 6.1 (.13) | 4.7 (.12) |
| Agricultural research focused on the genetic modification of plants and animals | 6.0 (.14) | 6.3 (.10) |
| The conduct of scientific research on the International Space Station | 4.4 (.15) | 3.9 (.13) |

**Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.**

## Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.

|  | Space Policy Leaders | Science Policy Leaders |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic research on the human genome and its relationship to health and disease | 8.3 (.10) | 8.2 (.09) |
| The development & improvement of fuel cells and other alternative energy sources | 8.1 (.10) | 8.3 (.08) |
| Disease-oriented biomedical research (apart from genomics) | 8.1 (.10) | 8.1 (.10) |
| Global climate change research | 7.5 (.12) | 7.4 (.11) |
| The development of nanotechnology | 7.4 (.11) | 7.2 (.10) |
| Basic biology research (apart from disease applications) | 7.3 (.10) | 7.6 (.09) |
| Earth science research, including oceanographic and polar research | 7.0 (.11) | 7.1 (.09) |
| The development of a new generation of space-based telescopes such as Hubble.... | 6.7 (.12) | 6.1 (.11) |
| The continuation of deep-space exploration | 6.7 (.13) | 5.6 (.13) |
| Defense-related research and development | 6.6 (.12) | 6.0 (.11) |
| Basic high energy physics such as the work at Fermi, Brookhaven, or CERN | 6.4 (.12) | 6.4 (.10) |
| The development of a new generation of space vehicles | 6.1 (.13) | 4.7 (.12) |
| Agricultural research focused on the genetic modification of plants and animals | 6.0 (.14) | 6.3 (.10) |
| The conduct of scientific research on the International Space Station | 4.4 (.15) | 3.9 (.13) |

**Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.**

## Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.

|  | Space Policy Leaders | Science Policy Leaders |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic research on the human genome and its relationship to health and disease | 8.3 (.10) | 8.2 (.09) |
| The development & improvement of fuel cells and other alternative energy sources | 8.1 (.10) | 8.3 (.08) |
| Disease-oriented biomedical research (apart from genomics) | 8.1 (.10) | 8.1 (.10) |
| Global climate change research | 7.5 (.12) | 7.4 (.11) |
| The development of nanotechnology | 7.4 (.11) | 7.2 (.10) |
| Basic biology research (apart from disease applications) | 7.3 (.10) | 7.6 (.09) |
| Earth science research, including oceanographic and polar research | 7.0 (.11) | 7.1 (.09) |
| The development of a new generation of space-based telescopes such as Hubble.... | 6.7 (.12) | 6.1 (.11) |
| The continuation of deep-space exploration | 6.7 (.13) | 5.6 (.13) |
| Defense-related research and development | 6.6 (.12) | 6.0 (.11) |
| Basic high energy physics such as the work at Fermi, Brookhaven, or CERN | 6.4 (.12) | 6.4 (.10) |
| The development of a new generation of space vehicles | 6.1 (.13) | 4.7 (.12) |
| Agricultural research focused on the genetic modification of plants and animals | 6.0 (.14) | 6.3 (.10) |
| The conduct of scientific research on the International Space Station | 4.4 (.15) | 3.9 (.13) |

**Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.**

## Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.

|  | Space Policy Leaders | Science Policy Leaders |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic research on the human genome and its relationship to health and disease | 8.3 (.10) | 8.2 (.09) |
| The development & improvement of fuel cells and other alternative energy sources | 8.1 (.10) | 8.3 (.08) |
| Disease-oriented biomedical research (apart from genomics) | 8.1 (.10) | 8.1 (.10) |
| Global climate change research | 7.5 (.12) | 7.4 (.11) |
| The development of nanotechnology | 7.4 (.11) | 7.2 (.10) |
| Basic biology research (apart from disease applications) | 7.3 (.10) | 7.6 (.09) |
| Earth science research, including oceanographic and polar research | 7.0 (.11) | 7.1 (.09) |
| The development of a new generation of space-based telescopes such as Hubble.... | 6.7 (.12) | 6.1 (.11) |
| The continuation of deep-space exploration | 6.7 (.13) | 5.6 (.13) |
| Defense-related research and development | 6.6 (.12) | 6.0 (.11) |
| Basic high energy physics such as the work at Fermi, Brookhaven, or CERN | 6.4 (.12) | 6.4 (.10) |
| The development of a new generation of space vehicles | 6.1 (.13) | 4.7 (.12) |
| Agricultural research focused on the genetic modification of plants and animals | 6.0 (.14) | 6.3 (.10) |
| The conduct of scientific research on the International Space Station | 4.4 (.15) | 3.9 (.13) |

**Leadership priorities for federal spending, 2003.**

## NASA is not perceived as doing a good job

| Compared with 20 years ago, would you say that NASA is doing 
a better job today, a worse job, or about the same? | Percent |
| --- | --- |
| Better |    17% |
| About the same | 33 |
| Worse | 45 |
| No answer |   5 |
| N =  | 341 |

**NASA is not perceived as doing a good job**
**by space policy leaders.**

## Leadership assessment of areas of NASA management.

|  | Mean | Median |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The management of space science research, 
including space telescopes and deep-space probes | 7.2 (.09) | 7 |
| The management of earth science research | 6.1 (.10) | 6 |
| The management of aeronautical research and related development | 5.5 (.12) | 6 |
| The communication of NASA-sponsored research to the public | 5.4 (.13) | 5 |
| The overall management of its budget | 5.1 (.12) | 5 |
| The management of human flight programs | 5.1 (.14) | 5 |
| The management of scientific research on the International Space Station | 4.8 (.14) | 5 |
| N = | 341 |  |
| NASA is a large and complex agency that manages a wide array of space flight and scientific research programs. For each of the activities listed below, please evaluate the job that NASA is currently doing, using a zero-to-10 scale. If you think that NASA is doing an outstanding job in a specific area, give it a 10. If you think that NASA is doing an awful job in an area, give it a zero. You may use the full range of values from zero to 10. |  |  |

**Leadership assessment of areas of NASA management.**

## Leadership understanding of selected concepts.

|  | Space Policy Leaders |  |  | Science Policy Leaders |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | CU | GS | LF | CU | GS | LF |
| The electromagnetic spectrum. |    52% |    28% |    20% |    51% |    25% |    24% |
| The concept of plate tectonics. | 49 | 35 | 16 | 43 | 41 | 16 |
| The process of nuclear fusion. | 44 | 41 | 15 | 32 | 43 | 25 |
| The concept and causes of global warming. | 43 | 53 |   4 | 41 | 54 |   5 |
| The concept of ozone depletion & recovery | 43 | 51 |   6 | 36 | 50 | 14 |
| The origin & composition of a laser beam. | 39 | 41 | 20 | 36 | 42 | 22 |
| The age of our Sun. | 35 | 41 | 24 | 27 | 47 | 26 |
| The life cycle of stars. | 34 | 43 | 23 | -- | -- | -- |
| The concept of an accelerating universe. | 33 | 48 | 19 | -- | -- | -- |
| The place of quarks in atomic theory. | 18 | 39 | 43 | -- | -- | -- |

**Leadership understanding of selected concepts.**

**CU = clear understanding   GS = general understanding   LF = less familiar**

## Leadership trust in information sources.

|  | Space Policy
Leaders | Science Policy Leaders |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A report from the National Academy of Sciences | 8.3 (.08) | 8.7 (.06) |
| An article in Science or Nature | 7.9 (.09) | 8.3 (.07) |
| A story in Space News or Aviation Week & Space Technology | 7.1 (.11) | --- |
| A report by a scientist from a major university | 7.0 (.10) | 7.4 (.08) |
| A report from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration | 6.9 (.12) | 6.6 (.10) |
| A story in the Wall Street Journal | 6.6 (.10) | 6.1 (.10) |
| A story in the New York Times or the Washington Post | 6.4 (.11) | 6.4 (.09) |
| A report from a Congressional committee on science & technology | 6.0 (.11) | 6.1 (.19) |
| A report from the Planetary Society | 6.0 (.15) | --- |
| A report from the Department of Defense | --- | 5.1 (.12) |
| A story in Time or Newsweek | 5.0 (.12) | 4.9 (.11) |
| A story on CNN | 4.7 (.11) | 4.5 (.10) |
| A story on a network television news show | 3.6 (.11) | 3.5 (.10) |

**Leadership trust in information sources.**

## The third major audience with whom you need to communicate is the attentive publics for science, technology, space, and environmental issues.

**In January 2004, approximately 12% of American adults – or 26 million individuals – were attentive to science, technology, space, or environmental issues.**
**An additional 73% of American adults – or 160 million individuals – were interested in these issues but did not think that they were well informed about these matters.**
**It is important to recognize that the attentive public becomes involved in the policy formulation process only when there is a major disagreement among policy leaders and when the policy leadership groups appeal to these attentive citizens to make their views known to decision-makers. **

## Public attitude toward a manned mission to Mars, 2004.

|  | Public | Strong
disagree | Disagree | Not sure | Agree | Strong
agree |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The United States should begin planning for a manned mission to Mars in the next 20 years. | Attentive | 20 | 32 |   5 | 31 | 12 |
|  | Interested | 23 | 32 |   4 | 33 |   8 |
|  | Residual | 20 | 16 | 14 | 33 | 17 |
|  | Total | 22 | 30 |   6 | 32 | 10 |

**Public attitude toward a manned mission to Mars, 2004.**

## Public attitude toward a permanent base on the Moon, 2005.

|  | Public | Strong
disagree | Disagree | Not sure | Agree | Strong
agree |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The United States should establish a permanent base on the Moon. | Attentive | 13 | 40 |   5 | 32 | 10 |
|  | Interested | 18 | 47 |   4 | 27 |   4 |
|  | Residual | 14 | 32 | 13 | 27 | 14 |
|  | Total | 17 | 43 |   6 | 28 |   6 |

**Public attitude toward a permanent base on the Moon, 2005.**

## Public attitude toward the space station, 2005.

|  | Public | Strong
disagree | Disagree | Not sure | Agree | Strong
agree |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The Space Station is a 
waste of money. | Attentive | 13 | 54 |   5 | 18 | 10 |
|  | Interested | 10 | 48 |   5 | 26 | 11 |
|  | Residual | 20 | 36 | 12 | 22 | 10 |
|  | Total | 12 | 47 |   6 | 24 | 11 |

**Public attitude toward the space station, 2005.**

## The fourth audience is all of the children and adults in our  society.  

**In a democratic society, it is appropriate to share the excitement, wonder, and awe of space exploration, including the monitoring and measurement of our own planet. **
**In general, I think that NASA does a reasonably good job in this area. The combination of school programs, museum programs, and television coverage of major launch and space activities provides an acceptable level of access in the United States and throughout the world.**
**NASA should continue these programs and always seek to make them qualitatively better, but there is not a compelling case to expand these activities as a part of a general communication plan. **

## What can we conclude from this review of the purposes, audiences, and strategies for the communication of space and earth science information? 

**NASA has multiple purposes and multiple audiences. It is essential to recognize and emphasize the multiple faceted nature of NASA to decision-makers, policy leaders, and interested and attentive citizens. **
**The most serious problem facing NASA in the short-term is a serious erosion of support among science policy leaders and space policy leaders. These leaders are far more influential and far more important than any segment of the public in the formulation of space policy.**
**In the spirit of a multi-purpose agency, it is critical for NASA to unbundle its communication program and to avoid putting all of its eggs in one basket. There are strong bases of support for deep space probes and for continued and improved monitoring of Earth and of our solar system. These programs need to be able to advocate for their own future.**
**The manned mission to Mars currently lacks support from science and space policy leaders and from the attentive publics for science, technology, space, and the environment. NASA should make its case for this program but not link its fate to the rest of NASA’s programs.**

## j-miller8@northwestern.edu

**are available upon request from:**
**j-miller8@northwestern.edu**