Science Communication - Essay Example

Science Communication Introduction Latin word "Communs", meaning commonness of experience, forms the basis of the word 'Communication'. All living beings use Communication to transfer their thoughts, ideas and messages. Seeing, Watching, observing, staring may sound all the same at a glance, but they all communicate different things to different people depending upon individual differences, values, beliefs, attitudes, personality and perception. Communication as such, is a dynamic process of exchanging thoughts, ideas, information, feelings, messages, attitude or knowledge amongst two or more persons through a predefined set of symbols, icons and signs called language. WHY Science Communication It is widely believed that dissemination of scientific information and inculcation of scientific attitude among masses at large is necessary for the progress of a country. Science communication programmes and activities have a very important role to play for developing a scientifically informed and attitudinally rational society. Sustained science communication efforts play a key role in enhancing level of public understanding of science and thus empowering them with useful knowledge. This can be done by way of interpretation of scientific knowledge and scientific concepts to the public through different mass media - print, broadcast, folk, interactive or digital. One such initiative on the web is http://whyfiles.org. Any communication process involves; Sender Receiver Communication channel or media The message may comprise of written words, spoken words, body language signs, icons or symbols. Sometimes, Noise may get embedded with the message, if the channel is not robust and reliable. A noisy message in turn may not communicate the intended thoughts to the receiver. Therefore great emphasis is laid on the medium as well, as Marshall McLuhan's famous saying goes, 'the medium is the message'. Broadly, functions of communication can be classified as; Providing Information, about the happenings all around us Education, to the students and to the masses in general about the concepts of science and the scientific temper. Persuasion, to the net savvy readers to visit whyfiles.com and more importantly to the society for not resorting to blind faiths alone. Entertainment, for all through scientific extras. Generating Debate and Discussion, amongst the scientific community, rationalists and other segments of society. Cultural Promotion, promoting values an cultures of society in general Integrating Tool, integrating the society into a rational thinking society. Any science popularization activity or programme, be it designed for common man, children, farmers or women, has three major inherent objectives and goals; (i) To make people aware of scientific and technological developments, (ii) To enable them to take an informed and rational decision and strengthen their decision making ability, and (iii) To develop scientific and technological temper into them, which would reflect on their systematic and rational role, behaviors and conduct in society. In this study we are trying to analyze the web site http://whyfiles.org/ on these very parameters. The mission statement of 'why files' says: "The mission of The Why Files is to explore the science, math and technology behind the news of the day, and to present those topics in a clear, accessible and accurate manner. We are based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but The Why Files covers science at all institutions that engage in scientific exploration and discovery."1 Strengths: Founded in 1996 as part of the National Institute for Science Education with funding from the National Science Foundation, the Why Files has been supported through the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1998. The support, financial as well logistical is the prerequisite for sustenance of any science related venture, because science in general is not a blue eyed boy of business community and we must not expect open hearted patronage from this sector. Whatever comes is the bonus. The web site is in place and running from strength to strength during these 10 years. The site appears quite comprehensive and links open up really fast. Why Files has a Good qualified team, appears quite dedicated as well. David Tenenbaum, the award winning feature writer. In Depth column indeed tries to explore the science, math and technology behind the news. The Search is powered by Google. Why files has also been awarded in the past for the research papers on its web site. Certainly such awards go a long way in inspiring the staff and committed visitors of whyfiles.com Talk To Us If you have a general science question, we urge you to look at this page before submitting feedback to The Why Files2. It is a good statement made at an opportune place Weaknesses: Propagating science itself is a challenge (not saying a weakness). Accepting this challenge and moving ahead requires lot of courage and conviction. Converting this challenge into an opportunity is indeed a very satisfying experience. In the section Still have a question These folks love questions:3, the subsequent links should open in new window, as it is a separate journey from this point onward. The web site is not very compact and links do not appear in an order. The surfer gets lost once he starts surfing. At times some information once seen is difficult to trace the second time. For example, when we enter the link Why Files team (About the team) from the home page, Sarah Goforth, has been shown as project assistant (Sep 2002 to Aug 2004). That means she has left Why Files in Aug 2004. But there is another link, which sort of makes us believe that Sarah continues to be with Why Files4. Financial dependence on other than self asks for 'keeping the establishment in good humor', at times cause of worry for some. Recommendations for Improvement: Inspiring stories in the forms of monthly/ weekly feature/s on the life and contribution to science by some of our great scientist of past as well as contemporary one's. Under the link 'Cool Science Images' there are six more sub-links for Biology, Earth & Space, Environment, Health, Physical Science and Technology. But, at the first glance these appear invisible, lot of effort is required to locate these tabs, the coloring scheme requires change. Otherwise as we enter 'Cool Science Images' only one image appears and we tend to think these guys are really very cold to 'cool pics'. This is a science web site, must be kept out of bound for advertisements and all those popping windows. Keep earning through the cafepress.com5 Once we go from home page to another link it becomes quite tricky to locate the adjacent articles from home page, little repackaging is required to be done so that items under one tab remain visible even while we are looking into another item. There are couple of repetitions on the links (e.g. the twister story figures IN THE NEWS as well as in INTERACTIVE, that too on the home page itself. Instead more information can be added on the home page by doing away with the repetitions. To 'Find It' and 'Browsing the Why Files archive' the listing should be as per the dates and not alphabetically. We already have the categorization, so in each category the document should be arranged starting from the most recent one. For this to become popular amongst masses (together with the science community) as the name "Why Files" suggests, emphasis must also be on explaining, in a lucid manner, the 'Why' aspect exploring the stories like 'why water supply pipelines burst during winter etc. There are plenty of science web sites and what is required to grab attention is the manner in which things have been explained and whether parents can surf the net and complete their school projects in turn in junior classes (senior classes are anyway out of bound for them!) Again there is some confusion when we check IN THE NEWS on home page and then go to ARCHIVE6 For one the name ARCHIVE word itself is not visible on the archive page. Secondly under the tab 'EXTRA' the links which were in news once again appear as extras. All such hyperlinks should be logically related to each other, because 'The very presence of hyperlinks on a page encourages readers to link ideas mentally, which increases learning. But readers also scan a Web page instead of reading it from beginning to end - and scanning decreases learning'7 Regular updates on the natural calamities and if possible advance warning from the weatherman and other scientific community will do a world of good for popularizing science and the web site. Under 'Still have a question These folks love questions the other web sites like MAD Scientist Network etc should open in a new page, as it's a new journey afterwards. To encourage the scientific temper amongst students, Why Files should try to attract the student community by way of annual competitions in the form of some essay writing or research paper for students of professional courses. The updation of news, views and articles should be more frequent, with pride place for the in-depth study paper for quite a while on the home page. Read More

 

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