HPSC1008: Introduction to Science Communication

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HPSC1008 Introduction to Science Communication

• Lecture Nine
• Science Communication and Activism
• Monday 1st December

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Activist groups

• increasingly important as a source of science
  information in science policy, and other public
  arenas
• challenge is how they position themselves in
  relation to scientific orthodoxies
• very important in supplying arguments about and
  publicising problems in relation to different sci
  issues.
• Many groups campaign against a number of sci
  issues or issues that have a sci element.
• Nuclear
• Environment
• Animal experimentation
• So these groups also are involved in
  communicating science in public sphere

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Activist groups as credible sources of science

• Science and scientists built up their own
  cultural and cognitive authority in public sphere
  over centuries
• Many different ways
• Unwritten rules of popularisation one way of
  ensuring only right message goes out to public
• Enforcing a top-down approach to science
  communication
• i.e. scientists in control
• How do activist groups gain the authority needed
  to go up against scientific/political
  institutions?
• Scientific credibility refers to the capacity of
  claims makers to enrol supporters behind their
  claims, to legitimate their argument as
  authoritative knowledge and to present themselves
  as the sort of people who can give a voice to
  science.

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Case Study 1 Environmental Groups

• Environmental Groups use mass media in very
  effective way
• Key to raising issues, and own identity
• Greenpeace Media Study (Hansen) 1987 - 91
• Greenpeace coverage very favourable
• Understand how newsmedia works
• Becomes representative of not just scientific
  issues, but social values, concerns about the
  environment
• Most important feature in terms of forging
  credibility is to conduct own science
• Allows them to meet scientists on their own terms
• Harder to dismiss as crazy treehugging hippies

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Brent Spar

• 65,000-ton decommissioned oil platform
• 3 years of study to work out how to dispose of. 2
  solutions reached
• Horizontal dismantling
• Deep sea disposal
• Shell opted for latter and Greenpeace raised
  scientific objections
• Rig still had toxic sludge in it
• Occupied rig in 1991 to conduct own tests to
  prove their point

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Brent Spar II

• Greenpeace not only mobilised own scientific
  research but questioned validity of Shells
• By mobilising both media campaign and scientific
  campaign Greenpeace successful in getting Shell
  to drop plans
• Gained credibility as a legitimate voice of
  science
• Hansen content analysis study
• Science and related synonyms (scientist,
  scientists, scientific) appeared 139 times
  between 1987-8 but 249 times between 1990-1
• Words Science and research appeared within
  ten words of Greenpeace in 45 cases in earlier
  year and 73 case for later

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Case Study 2 AIDS activism

• Patient groups another key space in which science
  and sctivism has met.
• 1980s saw many activist groups in US become
  concerned with spread of HIV/AIDS
• Borne out of already established groups from
  within gay and lesbian movement
• Lots of people with a lot of cultural capital
  already (white, middle class educated men)
• So already organised as a group
• Concern over the access to HIV medication and
  drug trials
• Both scientific matters
• Question was how to be taken seriously?

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AIDS activists

• Clinical Trials tricky subject
• Public health aims and clean data vs patient
  risks and use of placebos
• In HIV case placebo group would die
• In case of access to drugs, again need for
  medical science to do things one way conflicted
  with activists ideas about what was ethical
• Formation of own communication networks key to
  challenging science

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AIDS activists II

• Different tactics used to become effective and
  credible challengers to orthodox medical science
• Become the scientist
• Learn the language and culture of science
• gained access to institutions, conferences, speak
  on scientists terms
• Newsletter produced which flagged up new
  treatments
• Provided glossary of terms
• Could then challenge the science of clinical
  trials
• Become the voice of the research populations
• Only get access to trial patients through us, so
  do what we say!
• Mixing moral and methodological arguments about
  efficacy of drug trials
• Scientific argument - not representative
• Moral argument - about access for all/anti
  discrimination

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Conclusions

• Activists mobilise science in the public and
  scientific spheres a lot
• empirical claims about the state of the natural
  world are core to their message.
• often have to carry out this communication in
  circumstances where they disagree with the
  orientation of large parts of the scientific and
  technological establishment
• developed tools of argumentation for tackling
  this job.
• Establishing themselves as a credible
  communicator of science is key

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Research Task - Week 10

• Go and find literature from activist
  organisations on scientific issues
• Environment
• Animal rights
• Nuclear energy
• Intelligent design etc
• Research into any specific campaigns they might
  have conducted
• Think about what tactics they have used to
  communicate the issue
• Use of media?
• Moral and/or scientific arguments?
• Credible use of science?