Rationally Speaking #56 - Howard Schneider on Science News Literacy

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2012

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

M & J discuss science communication with Howard Schneider, dean of the school of journalism at SUNY Stonybrook and former editor of Newsday. A guest at previous skeptic events, including the first annual Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, Schneider has argued in the past that skeptics lay too much blame at the feet of the media for public misunderstandings and misconceptions about science. Julia and Massimo question him on this point, and ask him for his thoughts on what *can* be done to improve scientific literacy. As the founder of the Center for News Literacy and the Center for Communicating Science, Schneider has plenty of thoughts to share -- including making scientists take improv classes. Should science communication involve more storytelling? And is there any way to take advantage of new, online media formats to remedy some of the weak points in the science communication process?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.1	For more information, please visit us at n.ycceptics.org.
0:31.6	Welcome to rationally speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and
0:39.8	nonsense. I'm your host, Massimo Pilucci, and sort of with me, as always, is my co-host Julia Galev.
0:46.0	Julia, where are you?
0:47.9	Massimo, I am in California on a business trip, so I am technically not with you for the first time
0:53.6	in our two-year history,
0:54.7	but as you know, I am always with you in spirit. Of course. And what are we going to talk about today?
0:59.8	Today we have a guest in the studio where I am not. Howard Schneider is the dean of the School of
1:06.3	Journalism at Stony Brook University. And for more than 35 years was a reporter and editor at Newsday.
1:12.6	For nearly 18 of those years, he was managing editor and then editor of Newsday.
1:17.0	He is the executive director of the Center for News Literacy, which is devoted to training
1:21.9	the next generation of news consumers.
1:24.1	It's a course that has spread since its origin to 29 other universities around
1:28.8	the country. And he also helped found the Center for Communicating Science with Alan Alda.
1:35.2	And last but not least, he has been an honored guest at Nexus in our very first year,
1:41.2	which is how I first made his acquaintance. So of course, you know, that's where the real prestige is.
1:46.1	We should remind people, of course, that's the Northeast Conference for Science and Skepticism.
1:50.8	Oh, right.
1:51.4	For those three or four who don't know.
1:53.7	That's right.
1:55.1	Welcome, Howard.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York City Skeptics, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York City Skeptics and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.