Project on Discourse & Change

Course building project with Ian Suni and Don Rasmussen, Clarkson University

working draft of course module on societal dynamics of nanotechnology:

Course Module: Societal Impacts of Nanotechnology
Various scientific and policy recommendations have called for studies of the social, economic, and environmental impacts of nanotechnology. i ii iii ivv. As these calls have shown, nanoscale research presents key educational challenges to both technical and social scientists. Policy writers have argued that social scientists need to work with natural scientists to integrate societal implications and ethical sensitivity into nanoscience education. vi Roco and Bainbridge have argued that technical scientists must learn how to include an informed public in scientific decision making about nanoscale research.(last ref.) Theoretical fundamentals and practical principles of the representation of science in popular contexts, mass media, and communication skills can be effectively taught through self-pased, hypermedia courseware. Electronic courseware provides the unique opportunity to integrate various media (video, sound, graphics, flash animation), provide multi-dimensional learning, and incorporate innovative ways to track and assess learning. The modules we are building will cover the following topics:

  • Public perceptions of science
  • Understanding the role of mass media in society
  • Pragmatic strategies for oral, written, and electronic communication.

    • Public perceptions of science.
    This section will explain how the general public comes to understand and develop perceptions about modern scientific practices. Science is a process that integrates and distributes knowledge, materials, and concepts in multiple ways that often appear contradictory to non-scientists. vii The topics and issues that are essential to the successful development and maintenance of scientific research and advancement are significantly different from those that concern and inform public opinion and awareness about science. viii
    This section will explain these differences and will articulate those areas that inform public opinion about science and the different styles and forms of communication the public uses to access and learn about scientific research. By integrating a fully indexed database of publicperceptions of nanoscale science and technology, this section will teach how representations of nanoscale science have changed over the past 3 decades and how various activities and artifacts have influenced public understanding and public attitudes towards nanoscience and technology.

    This section will address and explain the historical limitations of expert communication modules (scientific publications, conferences) as means of influencing public opinion. Instead this section will demonstrate the role intermediaries (journalists, science writers, technical communicators) and intermediate forms of communication (narrative, biography, science writing) have played in presenting science to the general public. This will enable Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering students to understand the future roles they might play in dissemination of nanotechnology concepts.

    Mass media and society.
    An effective understanding of the creation of public perceptions must include an overview of fundamental principles of mass media, the role of the media in Western society, the connections between media and democracy, and the connections between media and corporate influence and control. This section will contrast various types of media (newspaper, television, radio) as well as various content-based media (magazines, newspapers) to demonstrate concepts of niche publishing and audience analysis. This section will include cases on media ethics and it will include examples and information about new emergent electronic forms of mass media.

    Topics will include commodification and marketing, ix x bias, and the distinctions between journalism and public relations and journalism and marketing. Rather than adopt a fully pragmatic perspective, this section will integrate a critical stances towards media and society that will resonate with most scientists' concerns for objectivity and research integrity.

    The goal is to provide an overview of mass media that supports the scientific community's concern for research integrity while providing insights into the way the media operates and the ways scientists can engage and contribute to various forms of mass media. By including this section we will teach scientists and engineers about the larger context of mass media. This knowledge is crucial to creating and sustaining strategic and informed media relations.

    Pragmatic strategies for oral, written, and electronic communication.
    This section will include pragmatic tutorials on various methods forauthoring documents for general audiences. Communication genres are ways to identify media by both characterizing use and identifying formal, stylistic features. xi Genre-based instruction is a sophisticated way to teach pragmatic activities that have regularized formal characteristics while still recognizing context-dependent variables such as audience, purpose, and situation. For example, news conferences have typical features, purposes, and products, yet in some situations scientists may which to alter, change, or avoid these features in favor of more appropriate methods for interacting with the public. xii Rather than provide formulaic instructions, our instructional model will emphasize problem-solving techniques that meet situational criteria. Strategies will include audience analysis and frame analysis. Practical topics will include news conferences (newspaper reports, magazine writing, feature articles, interviews), electronic communication (introduction to html & web design), static displays (posters), narrative writing, metaphor use, and speech writing. Video and audio files will enable the addition of specific lessons for public speaking. Such communications skills have been widely recognized as being important for science and engineering education.
    Works cited
    i Gross, M. (1999). Travels to the nanoworld: Miniature machinery in nature and technology.(Perseus, Cambridge MA,1999).
    ii J. Hogan, “Anti-nanotech campaigners declare war on tiny things,” New Scientist 178(2400), 10 (2003).
    iii D. Malakoff, “Congress wants studies of nanotech's dark side,” Science 301, 27 (2003).
    iv M. Rocco, and W.Bainbridge, in Societal implications of nanoscience and nanotechnology M.Rocco and W. Bainbridge, eds. (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2001), p. 1-24.
    v C. Stuart, “Nano's balancing act: Remarkable rewards are weighed against possible risks,” Smalltimes 3 (1), 34 (2003).
    vi J. Stratman, “Readers'Perception of Bias in Public Education Documents: The Case of Ballot Booklets,” Written Communication 17(4), 520 (2000).
    vii D. Hull, Science as a process: An evolutionary account of the social and conceptual development of science (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988).
    viii G. Myers, Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1990).
    ix T. Frank, The conquest of cool (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1997).
    x T. Frank and M. Weiland, eds. Commodify your dissent (Norton, New York, 1997).
    xi C. Berkenkotter and T. Huckin, Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognition/culture/power (Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1995).
    xii C. Bazerman, The languages of Edison's light (MIT Press, Boston, 1999.

    This material is based upon work supported by the National ScienceFoundation under Grant No. 0407261. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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