Last thoughts from PCST … and what next?

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Well, the conference is finished, and my luggage ready for the 6am morning flight. Before leaving, I asked Massimiano Bucchi, co-chair of PCST 2012, to give me his comments on this year’s conference.

“It was an intense programme. The sessions and discussions were of very good quality,” he said.

Bucchi said the meeting had strengthened “the interaction between research and practice” in science communication, and said for him one of the highlights this year was a meeting of PhD students, which attracted some 60 people from around the world who are engaged in science communication research.

“It was a good opportunity for networking and to make more visible what Italian institutions are doing in terms of public engagement,” Bucchi said.

There was also an announcement in the final session from Toss Gascoigne, about an important change to the PCST network, of which he is the president.

“The network has been working in an informal way for more than two decades, headed by a scientific committee,” he said.

“Now, we [have] decided to make a structural change toward a formal network, with legal status,” he said, adding that the constitution of the network and a membership scheme will be discussed in the coming months.

After the final session, the scientific committee — of which I am a member — met to take some decisions.  We approved two workshops to be held in 2013; one in New Zealand and other in Indonesia.

Then we had to decide where to hold the PCST 2016. We received two bids from two very exciting cities: Nairobi, in Kenya, and Istanbul, in Turkey. Very exciting, isn’t it? And the decision was… Istanbul!

But before the Istanbul conference there is, obviously, PCST 2014 which will be in another part of the globe: Brazil! I will be one of the chairs of that meeting, sharing the responsibility with Germana Barata.

Two strong institutions will host the conference: the Museum of Life/House of Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, and Labjor/State University of Campinas.

It is very exciting, since it will be the first PCST conference to be held in the Americas. We want to show that Latin America is the stage of an increasingly vibrant science communication community, strong in both practical and academic approaches.

After having had beauty, honesty and quality as the theme of this year’s conference — so apt in such a wonderful city as Florence — we want to add social and political concern ingredients to the discussion on science communication.

So the 2014 meeting will have as its theme, “Science communication for social inclusion and political engagement”. It will be held in Salvador, another fantastic city, with an extremely diverse culture.

See you there!

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Sustainable development through comics

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Communicating science in Mexico, as in any developing world country, can be a big challenge. Most of Mexico’s estimated 100 million inhabitants have only received eight years of basic education. For every 100 inhabitants over the age of 15 years, eleven females and seven males are illiterate.

On the other hand, comics are enormously popular in Mexico. Having this situation in mind, Aquiles Negrete, a researcher at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, has been describing his exploration of the use of comics to communicate science issues at PCST.

An image from the comic, "Sustainable Love"

His Sustento de amor (sustainable love) comic is a love story that uses visuals and a skilled narrative to disseminate information about sustainable development and natural resources  in Mexico and Central America.

Negrete has also developed what he calls the ‘RIRC’ method to evaluate the project, which uses four memory tasks, and  explores different levels of understanding.

“Our results show that comics can be an interesting tool for communicating science,” he says.

Also from Mexico, Rolando Riley from the Autonomous University of Chiapas, is using visual information to get science news and ideas to Chiapas, a state in which access to scientific information is poor.

“About 35 per cent of the population do not speak Spanish, the official language,” he explains.

One of the pilot projects is on nutrition, with a view to targeting women, because they “actually decide what the family will eat”.  Two other pilot projects will start soon, focusing on technology applied to agriculture, and the use of natural resources.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Exploring science theatre

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Two ‘classics’ of science communication — Baudouin Jurdant from the University of Paris 7 (pictured on the left) and Steve Miller of University College London, taking part in an exploration of science theatre at PCST 2012.

The pair participated in a play reading that aimed to encourage reflections on the challenges for communicating science to the public using drama.

The reading was also participated in by Jöelle Le Marec of the Université Paris Diderot and Yves Jeanneret of Paris Sorbonne Université — both in France —  and Ana Godinho from the Instituto de Filosofia da Linguagem in Portugal.

The play was written by Jourdant, who has no immediate plans to stage the play in a regular theatre.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Happy birthday, Public Understanding of Science!

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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The commemoration of the 20^th anniversary of the journal of Public Understanding of Science (PUS) has recevied its own plenary session at PCST 2012, with the participation of all four editors: John Durant (MIT, US), Bruce Lewenstein (Cornell University, US), Edna Einsiedel (University of Calgary, Canada) and Martin Bauer (London School of Economics, UK).

Public Understanding of Science

It was a good opportunity for thinking about the past, the present and the future. The history of the journal coincides with an important moment of consolidation of the academic field.

One of the main journals for researchers in this discipline, it has doubled its publication rate since 1992, moving from 4 issues a year to 8. The editors say they want to broaden the journal’s current “North Atlantic driven” focus.

“We need to increase the presence of other countries and push the internationalisation of the authorship,” said Bauer, the journal’s president editor.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Journalists under pressure

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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The wide use of the internet has brought unquestionable new benefits to journalists. Discussing the challenges of science journalism at PCST today, Suzanne de Cheveigné, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, highlighted that it also puts journalists increasingly under pressure.

“Editors are putting too much pressure on journalists in terms of reducing the time [it takes to write stories],” de Cheveigné said, referring to a qualitative study she has carried out with environment journalists.

I am not myself a environment journalist (and prefer to refer to myself as science journalist) but I can understand very well this feeling.  Actually, I can visualise the face of my editor in London, waiting for posts for this blog, while I attend several sessions, chair a few of them and do a couple of presentations myself. It’s very cool, but also feels like too much pressure sometimes.

According to de Cheveigné, the avalanche of emails journalists receive is another example of journalists being overwhelmed in the internet age.

“It is actually impossible to open all of them,” she said.

Another study among environment journalists carried out by Ana Claudia Nepote, at the Autonomous National University in Mexico, brought further information about the pressures on the profession.

The study is based on a questionnaire survey distributed electronically to journalists, 38 of whom responded.

Ana Claudia observed that respondents were concentrated in the capital, Mexico City, or in Veracruz, where there is a masters course on environment journalism.

“We had no answers from the northeast, [where there is] a lot of economical development activity, or southern areas such as Chiapas and Oaxaca, which are very rich cultural and biological regions,” she said regretfully.

“Our results indicate that there is a lack of projects such as community radio and other strategies to engage local communities.”

Nepote also called for greater efforts to strengthen press offices at universities, research centres and government agencies such as the National Council of Science and Technology.

“We need to push the press officers, since they are facilitator agents between science and the public,” she said.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Beauty has a specific space in our brain?

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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Beautiful things have one thing in common: they activate a specific area of the brain. This intriguing idea was raised in the opening session of this year’s conference by Semir Zeki, professor at neurosthetics at University College London, United Kingdom, in a talk on the measurement of beauty.

It’s a controversial and possibly reductionist idea, but one thing we would probably agree on is that if there was a way of testing our brain activity during his talk, we would have been pretty active.

The PCST 2012 venue - Florence's Palazzo Vecchio

Certainly no one could disagree that the location of the 12^th International Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST 2012) is one of beauty. We are at the Palazzo Vecchio, surrounded by fantastic artworks, including a Michelangelo.

For Piero Angela, a senior Italian TV announcer who has been central to the primetime science show “Superquark“, emotion is the central issue in engaging the public in science.

“Without emotion, we are not able to switch on the brain, to activate the memories,” he told the opening session.

The conference has attracted 647 delegates from 46 countries. The majority are from Europe (72 per cent), followed by Asia (9 per cent), North America (9 per cent) and Oceania (5 per cent).  Just 4 per cent and 1 per cent of the delegates are from Latin America and Africa respectively.

We will have two very packed and exciting days!

Note from Editor: The organisers have uploaded podcasts from conference sessions here.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Luggage ready, destination Florence!

Luisa Massarani
Latin America regional coordinator, SciDev.Net

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I just finished packing my luggage. I am very excited about travelling to Florence, Italy. The city is fantastic, the wine and the food are both so good as to be indescribable.

Florence is hosting PCST2012

But it is unlikely that I can taste any of these delights, as I will be extremely busy.  Not that I am unhappy, though. The Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference (PCST) is one of my favourites.

There are other two other key international conferences on science communication: the World Conference for Science Journalists and  the World Conference for Science Centers. I really enjoy both of them, but PCST is about everything and everybody together: scientists, journalists, artists etc (and there are a lot of “etc”!).  It is about both research and practical initiatives. In summary: everything related to science communication.

And one of the most enjoyable aspects of these international conferences is that they are held in a different country each time.  It’s a great opportunity to observe how the concept of science communication can change according to a specific cultural, social and economic context.

I have high expectations for the meeting in Florence. The organisers are expecting around 850 people, and looking at the programme, it’s very exciting. There are some extremely well-known and well-respected speakers.

More from me very soon. In the meantime, check out the website, where you can find out more about the conference and read the full programme.

Note from Editor: This year the organisers will be recording sessions and making them available on the conference site as podcasts.

This blog post is part of our Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCST2012) conference coverage.

Declarations, dancing… but will the Forum deliver action?

Ochieng’ Ogodo
Sub-Saharan Africa regional news editor, SciDev.Net

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In an evening of a cosy buffet and free flowing drinks, many at the Forum’s conference dinner discussed Africa’s love of conferences and the lack of implementation of their outcomes.

Kenya’s Minister for Higher Education Science and Technology, Margaret Kamar, who was the host, could have not been more apt in terming the continent “a sleeping giant with tons of declarations with nothing being done to fulfil them.”

And she said she hoped that at the end of the Africa Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation that scenario would change.

“I hope tomorrow will mark the end of declarations for Africa and we must translate these outcomes into development,” she said.

She had some food for thought for the delegates, that unlocking the continent’s potential won’t come from meetings and resolutions but on the ability of her people to wake up the giant and give it the much needed push to development.

“It’s time for science, technology and innovation in Africa and there is no short cut. We must do it. We want solutions that will work. Practical solutions for practical problems,” Kamar said.

The dinner was also a chance for delegates to relax after a long day’s deliberations, with African beats belching out from big speakers.  There was talents galore in footwork, and some very intricate and rare dance steps.  It was a reminder that everyone there, irrespective of their stations in public life — academics, diplomats, and even journalists like me — have many other gifts… including dancing.

Nonetheless, Kamar’s remarks echoed what has been said in many other places, at other meetings in other posh hotels, where excellent declarations have been made that rarely translate into tangible solutions for Africa’s people, the majority of whom are trapped in abject poverty.

Africa can only come unstuck with a paradigm shift, not business as usual.

We are now waiting to see how — and whether — this Nairobi meeting that had at its theme the promotion of Youth Employment, Human Capital Development and Inclusive growth will contribute to bringing about real change.

From Doha to Helsinki: in pursuit of press freedom

David Dickson
Director, SciDev.Net

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“The revolution was the easy part. What is happening now is the hard part.”

These were the rousing words with which Nadia El-Awady, co-founder of the Association of Arab Journalists, president of the World Federation of Science Journalists – and an active participant of the events in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in January and February of this year – brought to an end three days of intense debate on the role of science journalism in the modern world.

Nadia, who is also a trustee of SciDev.Net, was referring primarily to the aftermath of the Arab spring.

She was reminding participants that those who had been successful in toppling an unpopular, authoritarian regime, armed with little more than a common cause and the convening power of the Internet, now faced the reality of putting an alternative, functioning system in its place.

But her words also reflected a theme to emerge from the conference itself. Ten years ago, the major task facing science journalists, particularly in the developing world, was to get scientists to take them seriously.

Journalists can play a key role in ensuring a political commitment to transparency. Credit: Flickr/Charles Mok

That struggle has now been won. But it has been replaced by an even more challenging one, namely to get governments to embrace, rather than seek to suppress, the power to expose and interrogate that even science journalists now enjoy.

Too often, as the conference heard, the official response to this new power is to attempt to shut down the possibility of open communication between scientists and journalists, allowing it only under strictly controlled conditions. This poses science journalists with a whole new set of challenges.

Some responses – such as avoiding press officers wherever possible – offer short-term solutions. In the long-run, however, the problem can only be solved through a political commitment to transparency and open government – and a recognition of the key role that journalists can play in ensuring that this commitment is honoured.

As eyes now turn to Helsinki, the location of the next world conference in two years’ time, these are the issues that need to be high on the agenda. They impact on the work of all science journalists, from developed and developing countries alike.

Tackling them together reminds us that we are a member of a global profession with a common set of commitments, not only to professional standards but also to transparency and accountability. This is perhaps the biggest legacy of the Doha meeting. Exploring how to put these commitments into effect must remain high on the agenda of the organisers of its successor in Helsinki.

How one man emerged from Tahrir Square with a passion for science journalism

Aisling Irwin
News and features editor, SciDev.Net

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I’ve never heard a more passionate plea for rigorous science journalism in the developing world as I did at the closing session of the conference.

Arab science journalists who had been involved in the uprisings of Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year were describing their experiences.

And, for one of them, the events of Tahrir Square were a defining moment not just for his life as a citizen but also as a science journalist.

“Looking ahead I see a huge role for journalism and in particular science journalism,” Mohammed Yahia told the meeting. “All our problems are related to science.”

So how did he deduce this from his days of rebellion in the Square?

It began rather pragmatically. Yahia had been skiving from his duties as editor of Nature Middle East to play his part in the epochal events of late January and, after three days, his London bosses rang to inquire when he would be returning to his work.

Yahia said science journalism should be a push to hold people accountable. Credit: Flickr/ictQATAR

“I had to come up with a reason to be a science journalist in Tahrir Square,” he explained.

And he did. He roamed around finding stories about protesting scientists, angry students and makeshift instruments being used in contrived hospitals.

“If you looked closely enough there were so many science-related stories … there were tons of stories,” he said.

And thus the fight for democracy was fused with the quest for critical science journalism.

Now, as Egypt tries to pull itself together and tackle festering issues such as 40 per cent illiteracy and the scarcity of food and water, he sees that science journalists need to be monitoring his country, and in particular its pledge to put science at the heart of its recovery.

“It can’t be the passive science journalism that was taking place in many of the state-run agencies. It needs to be more active – we need to push for more freedom.”

Afterwards I asked him if his views applied beyond Egypt.

“A lot of people look at science journalism as a form that is not as critical as political journalism,” he said. “But that’s not right.

“The vast majority of problems that the developing world will be facing in the future are science-related.

“I really think science journalism should be a push to hold people accountable, to take a more proactive role.”

A subject close to our hearts at SciDev.Net.