Cormick - The Science of Communicating Science: the Ultimate Guide

Craig Cormick 2019

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A very special thanks to all those who cast their eagle-eyes over the draft manuscript and provided insightful comments including Andrew Maynard, Brian Zikmund-Fisher, Elyse Aurbach, Susannah Eliott and Anna-Maria Arabia. A very special thank you to Katie Prater who went above and beyond in helping make this the book it now is.

In reading the many hundred journal articles and media reports and surveys and blogs that informed the content of this book, one quote stood out that I kept aside for the introduction, as I think it best captured what I was trying to achieve.

Professor Brigitte Nerlich of Nottingham University in the UK wrote in a blog post entitled Science communication: What was it, what is it, and what should it be?:

a whole academic industry has begun to flourish that is supposed to tell scientists what to communicate, how to communicate and for what reasons to communicate. Research into these matters has proliferated (and I have contributed to this proliferation). Unfortunately, the results of that research are largely published in places and in languages that scientists dont visit and dont really understand. As a result, there is some estrangement between those who still communicate and those who want to tell them how to do it.

In short, thats a problem that we need to do something about. What is the point of having all this great research into how to better communicate science if it is largely inaccessible?

Increasingly scientists recognise the call made by former head of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco, to acknowledge there is a social contract to communicate science with society but how to do that?

We have all these busy people doing the best they can in their fields, but who are far too time poor to hunt around all over the place and find those pearls of wisdom and research summaries that might help them better communicate science.

Somebody ought to do something about it, yeah?

Dr Craig Cormick

Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known.

Carl Sagan, astronomer and science communicator

When I am asked what makes good science communication, I say, Just three things really know your audience, and tell a good story. Its so short and succinct you can tweet it.

And people then say, But thats only two things. Have you forgotten one?

And I say, Yes. Most people forget the third thing. That is being clear on what you want to achieve.

Is it that simple? Really? So I just need to memorise that and I can put this book back on the shelf and go and watch Netflix?

And then I have to say, No, of course its not that simple! What were you thinking? If it were that simple you would be able to learn everything you need to know from tweets and not from books! You need to know about messaging and trust and different values and so many things.

But it is a good starting point to memorise those three points and then probe into them a bit deeper. And yes, thats what were going to do.

But first a story.

I remember giving a conference talk several years ago to a crowded audience, right after lunch and I was working my way through my data slides on why different people had different attitudes to technologies and it started raining. Really, really hard. You could hear it bouncing off the roof above us.

There is something about the sound of rain, and a full stomach, that just lulls people to sleep (okay, my PowerPoint slides might have been a bit data-rich for this audience of agronomists too). I could see eyelids starting to close and people looking at their phones. So I stopped talking. Then I leant forward not looking at my notes anymore, and I said, Let me tell you all a story.

At once I had the eyes of everyone in the auditorium. The expectation of what I had to say was suddenly more interesting than their emails or Facebook or even a quick snooze. I dont know if I fulfilled their expectations with my story but the lesson was never lost on me. There is a certain mesmerising power in breaking into a story.

And think of all the different ways we can engage people through stories of some kind be it a blog post, a live experiment, a demonstration, a TV show or podcast. Most people get that at least in theory.

The second point, knowing your audience can be a little bit harder.

One of the Ancient Greek Oracles of Delphi (a sort of ancient Google who could speak wisdom after breathing intoxicating vapours that rose from chasms in the earth), stated, Know yourself . Even though she then tripped off on a vapour high and never finished the sentence, it became the Oracles motto and was inscribed into the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It has since been interpreted in many ways, including