Where is Waldo Where is NASA ES

1
Where is Waldo? Where is NASA ES?

• Gleaned impressions of Earth Sciences
  communication impact
• Dr. Susanna Priest, University of South Carolina

2
Stakeholder perspectives

• Broad range of stakeholders/policy makers
• Government
• Federal policy makers (e.g., Congress, OSTP,
  etc.)
• Local planners??
• Government scientists, agencies (NOAA, etc.)
• Evaluators (GAO, OMB, etc.)
• Advocacy groups
• Science policy/funding (e.g. AAAS)
• Environmental policy
• Industry??
• Academic scientists
• Are these among the audiences considered?

3
Special challenges

• Visibility and branding
• National Aeronautics and Space Admin
• Earth-Sun Systems within NASA Science
• Goddard Space Flight Center
• Even Life on Earth may not suggest ES
• Much greater media (press) and external web
  visibility of space missions/programs
• General complexity of nasa.gov
• Traditional audiences for NASA science vs. other
  NASA programs
• Problem is likely the same for space science

4
General observations

• A lot of information is available, but hard to
  find, use, and relate to ES
• Both access and branding issues
• Visibility of ES work likely greater to
  scientific audiences than to policymakers or
  public
• Direct collaborations and conferences, papers
  (social organization/sociology of science)
• NASA material is often geared to educators and
  students, may miss other stakeholders

5
Where is the science?

• Scientific results and findings very scarce
  outside of scientific literature
• Emphasis is on programs (education), people (good
  human interest), satellite system (engineering)
• Conclusions are not in forms many stakeholders or
  public can use
• E.g., climate change need the when, where, what,
  why, how, not just the who!

6
Questions and considerations

• Reconsider stakeholder audiences
• Separate messages, vehicles for each
• Provide information in forms they can use
• Should ES be better branded?
• Open question in terms of strategy, politics
• Arguments against as well as for
• AND.

7
The key questions!

• Is there a core message? (no??)
• Does there need to be?
• Is the message we are good people doing good
  work?
• Is this enough?
• How does ES want to be viewed??
• What impression is desired?
• What policy impacts are sought?