From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Sat Aug 09 2003 - 13:37:14 MDT
< http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030808/03 >
The Scientist [ < http://www.The-Scientist.com > ]
A slot for science
Weather, sports, and animals have their own cable television channels. Why
not 24-hour science? | <mailto:csoares@the-scientist.com>By Christine Soares
Science is too important and the scientific process too complex to leave to
the "tyranny" of the network news
<http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1991/june/prof_910610.html>sound bite,
contends a small California-based group trying to generate support for an
entire television network devoted to unadulterated science. Modeling their
proposed science channel on the nonprofit
<http://www.c-span.org/>Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN),
the group is seeking seed money from investor angels or foundations to move
forward with the idea whose time, they believe, has come.
"We now have more than 100 channels on cable, so it seems that to me there
ought to be one of them devoted to some serious scientific discussion,"
said <http://www.csntv.org/>Terry Sejnowski, head of the Salk Institute's
Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, who is serving as advisory board
chair for the fledgling
"<http://www.salk.edu/faculty/faculty/details.php?id=48>Cable Science
Network" (CSN) initiative.
Sejnowski <http://www.biomedcentral.com/pubmed/12893928>makes a case for
the network in the August 1 issue of Science, citing stem cell research as
just one example of topics for which public discussion and policymaking
require in-depth information, and current science coverage is inadequate:
"The importance of timely scientific information was apparent in the
debates in the United States last year on stem cell research: Speeches were
given, positions taken, and decisions made based on simplistic and
sensational interpretations of the underlying biology. The press failed to
provide the scientific background, and the scientific community failed to
provide forums to clarify the different types of stem cell research and the
consequences of restricting research options."
CSN is the brainchild of evolutionary neuroscientist Roger Bingham, a
researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
<http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/CBC2.html>Center for Brain and Cognition and an
awardwinning documentary producer. Bingham and his wife Linda, a fan of
both science and C-SPAN, have put together a brief position paper
describing the possible content of a 24-hour-a-day television network that
would provide the kind of access to in-depth science information and
discussion that C-SPAN's three channels collectively provide for politics.
Bingham envisions offering a mix of high-end documentary material, such as
the "<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/>NOVA" series and a revival of
<http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1997/july/gwynne_p1_970721.html>Carl
Sagan's "Cosmos," with lectures, both historic and current, and talk shows.
But the network would also carry a C-SPAN-esque assortment of unedited
content, such as live speeches, debates, and congressional hearings.
<http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bvl1>Bruce V. Lewenstein, a professor
of science communication at Cornell University and editor of the journal
<http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journal.aspx?pid=105747>Public Understanding of
Science, wonders how much of an audience there would be for such a channel.
"Live science isn't very interesting," he said, and Bingham's CSN proposal
"has its heart in the right place, but it doesn't seem to recognize or
speak to some of the constraints for
<http://www.nap.edu/issues/19.4/yankelovich.html>reaching the broad public
with science information."
The National Science Foundation's
<http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/c7s4.htm#c7s4l2>latest annual survey
of public attitudes toward science found that only 8% of respondents watch
"NOVA" regularly, whereas 90% watch television news at least a few times a
week. Even legislators are getting science information from TV news shows,
according to the report, which noted that a "60 Minutes" segment on human
cloning was shown at the start of a March 2001 House of Representatives
subcommittee hearing on the topic.
Lewenstein fears there might not be much of an appetite for the undigested
science discussion that Bingham sees as a key element in the CSN mix. "This
is why I'm a little bit surprised that someone who's a very experienced
television producer would be talking about putting out something raw and
think that it's going to have appeal. That's the piece I'm curious about,"
Lewenstein said.
Bingham, who has produced acclaimed PBS series including "Frontiers of the
Mind" and "The Human Quest," acknowledges that lovingly crafted
documentaries represent one extreme in science communication and can be
highly effective. "But I also know how much stuff I left on the floor. I
regretted a lot of the material that didn't make it onto the air," he said.
"And it's important to have a network that's free of the tyranny of the
sound bite."
Sejnowski notes that he has friends who are "C-SPAN junkies" precisely
because of the channels' unscripted drama. "They just put it on in the
background and it's kind of like a soap opera& I think it's really
transformed public perception of what happens in Washington& what it is
that people actually do to make policy," he said. "So I think one of the
goals of CSN could be just to let the public know how science is done&
having scientists debate the issues and having the process of science
exposed to the public."
At present, only <http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/>NASA TV broadcasts
a near-constant stream of educational programming and live transmissions
from space missions. And several organizations, such as the UK-based
<http://www.vega.org.uk/info/intro.html>Vega Science Trust and the
<http://www.mos.org/cst/section/presentation.html>Current Science and
Technology Center in Boston, produce TV-ready lectures and discussions of
timely science topics for broadcast by other television networks and on the
Internet.
But none of these sources rival the 24-hour reach of C-SPAN, which is
funded by the cable television industry as a public service and is
available to 85 million US households, with an
<http://www.c-span.org/about/numbers.asp>estimated weekly audience of 28
million.
Why C-SPAN itself doesn't offer science-related programming when public
policy or legislation is at stake is a mystery to Sejnowski. He suspects
the network's producers simply don't have the expertise to find the right
sources, and he and Bingham would be happy to help.
Bingham says he has had initial talks with C-SPAN and other "nonprofit
providers" about developing some programming that could be a "training
wheels" stage in building the CSN network. For example, he'd love to see a
monthly installment of C-SPAN's
< http://www.booknotes.org/about/ > Booknotes" program devoted to interviews
with authors of science books.
Working with a small private grant, Bingham is circulating his position
paper and putting together an advisory board. So far, Sejnowski and his
wife Beatrice Golomb, a UCSD researcher, have signed on, as have V.S.
Ramachandran; E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory; John Allman
of the California Institute of Technology; Ann Druyan of Cosmos Studios;
Paul MacReady of AeroVironment; and Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic
magazine.
But as yet, "there isn't any angel who finds this to be their life calling,
where they want to make their imprint," Sejnowski said. "There are a lot of
very wealthy individuals right now who are looking around and who are young
enough so they can get involved. This would be the perfect project for them."
Links for this article
S. Pendlebury, "From the lab to the tube, surviving television
appearances," The Scientist, 5:0, June 10, 1991.
<http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1991/june/prof_910610.html>
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1991/june/prof_910610.html
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network
<http://www.c-span.org/>http://www.c-span.org/
CSN: The Cable Science Network
<http://www.csntv.org/>http://www.csntv.org/
Terry J. Sejnowski
<http://www.salk.edu/faculty/faculty/details.php?id=48>
http://www.salk.edu/faculty/faculty/details.php?id=48
T.J. Sejnowski, "Perceptions of science: tap into science 24-7," Science,
301:601,August 1, 2003.
[<http://www.biomedcentral.com/pubmed/12893928>PubMed Abstract]
Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego
<http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/CBC2.html>http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/CBC2.html
NOVA
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
P. Gwynne, "Can you promote science without losing respect?" The Scientist,
11:1, July 21, 1997.
<http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1997/july/gwynne_p1_970721.html>
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1997/july/gwynne_p1_970721.html
Bruce V. Lewenstein
<http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bvl1>http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/bvl1
Public Understanding of Science
<http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journal.aspx?pid=105747>
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journal.aspx?pid=105747
D. Yankelovich, "Winning greater influence for science," Issues in Science
and Technology, Summer 2003.
<http://www.nap.edu/issues/19.4/yankelovich.html>
http://www.nap.edu/issues/19.4/yankelovich.html
National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics,
"Science on television," in Science and Engineering Indicators2002,
Arlington, VA, April 2002.
<http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/c7s4.htm#c7s4l2>
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/c7s4.htm#c7s4l2
NASA Television
<http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/>http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
The Vega Science Trust, Introduction and Aims
<http://www.vega.org.uk/info/intro.html>http://www.vega.org.uk/info/intro.html
Current Science and Technology Center, Live Events
<http://www.mos.org/cst/section/presentation.html>
http://www.mos.org/cst/section/presentation.html
C-SPAN by the Numbers
< http://www.c-span.org/about/numbers.asp >
Booknotes
< http://www.booknotes.org/about/ >
-- Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com > Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com > Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html > Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB * U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program ------------ Member: Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (TLCB) Mailing List TLCB Web Site: < http://www.tlc-brotherhood.org >[Vietnam veterans, Allies, CIA/NSA, and "steenkeen" contractors are welcome.]
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