Guest Thinkers

Several news reports note that Gore’s new climate communication initiative targets Americans not just through television ads, but also by way of interpersonal networks, specifically what campaign organizers call “influentials” […]

At Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School on Monday, about fifty faculty and students turned out for the lunch time seminar on Framing Science. The Q&A generated traditional questions but also a […]

Yesterday, on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, Francis Collins appeared with other guests to talk about the science and ethics of personal genetic testing. The show was prompted in part by […]

Over the summer I addressed by video conference a meeting by the National Academies on state science policy advice. They’ve now produced a report based on that meeting and it […]

Ask yourself: What’s the best way you can promote atheism in your community or on your campus? Do you want to gain attention through polarizing attacks at your blog or […]

I just drove round trip from the Minneapolis airport to Madison in a rented Toyota Prius. I have to say that the car is super fast and smooth and has […]

You don’t have to be a social scientist to recognize that the distribution of opinion among people who comment at Scienceblogs is very different from the perspective found among the […]

Last week Pew released an in depth survey of national and local print and TV reporters, editors, and producers. Among the findings, Pew describes that journalists at national news organizations […]

Speculation mounts as to whether Gore will endorse either Obama or Clinton in the Democratic Primary race. My suggestion would be that he stay out of election politics in 2008, […]

Two weeks ago, I spent my spring break at the Exploratorium, as a visiting Osher Fellow. One of the projects I consulted on was the Exploratorium’s “evidence” project, an exciting […]

Caitlin Wall, one of the students in my Political Communication seminar this semester, has embarked on a very successful job as an international affairs blogger for Foreign Policy magazine. Caitlin’s […]

From E.O. Wilson’s appearance last year on PBS Bill Moyers talking about the common moral obligation among atheists and evangelicals to take collective action on the environment: Let us– in […]

In the March 14 issue of Science, a letter was published responding to our April 2007 Policy Forum essay and our October 2007 cover article at The Scientist. In her […]

While the PZ Myers Affair dominates discussion at Scienceblogs this weekend, it’s important to remind ourselves that there is an invisible middle of perspectives from scientists, atheists and the religious […]

If you haven’t seen this clip yet, above is a preview of the central message on how “Big Science” views religion in the documentary Expelled. There’s little work needed on […]

In its latest issue, Time magazine runs a feature on the impacts of social issue dramas such as Blood Diamond and documentaries such as Inconvenient Truth. It’s an area where […]

Student Pugwash has launched a very interesting science, environment, and technology guide for young voters. Press release below. Student Pugwash USA Launches Science Policy Election Guide for Young VotersWashington, DC […]

Pew has released its annual “State of the Media” report with detailed summaries of their content analysis on each sector of the news media. I will be blogging about this […]

At the popular site Ars Technica, science editor John Timmer pens a detailed summary of the “Communicating Science in a Religious America” panel held at last month’s AAAS meetings. The […]

With more than a million contributors and volunteers, if Obama makes it to the Oval Office, he could be the first “network president.” That’s how Joe Trippi on PBS NOW […]

In a segment set to air on BBC/PRI’s The World tomorrow, I offer my observations about the communication strategy of The Heartland Institute. The Chicago based think tank seeks to […]

I will be spending next week (my spring break) in San Francisco as an Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium science museum. While in the Bay Area, Chris Mooney will be […]

The latest issue of Nature Reports Stem Cell Research runs a lengthy news analysis by Meredith Wadman on the political communication effort that ultimately killed the New Jersey stem cell […]

As I explained yesterday, it’s foolish to dismiss the potential impact of the Heartland Institute conference. The organizers have a powerful framing strategy, one that resonates strongly with conservative media […]

In his regular column at Nature this week, David Goldston weighs in on the themes discussed at the AAAS panel “Communicating Science in a Religious America,” which Goldston moderated. In […]

Yesterday PRI’s The World ran a five minute news report (audio) on The Heartland Institute’s climate change conference to which I contributed analysis. Also at their web site, they feature […]

In the latest issue of the journal CBE Life Sciences, National Academies senior staffers Jay Labov and Barbara Kline Pope describe the audience research that informed the writing, design, and […]

One of the reporters I spotted at AAAS was Curtis Brainard of the Columbia Journalism Review. Curtis is CJR’s science correspondent and creator of CJR’s Observatory, a great new online […]

Expect a lot more of this train of thought pushed by the Clinton campaign and various journalists and pundits over the next two weeks leading up to the primaries in […]

In the Wall Street Journal today, GOP strategist Karl Rove rejects conventional wisdom that Obama is vulnerable simply because of the two sided attacks from Clinton and McCain, but rather […]