Lecturer
2018—Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania
Language and context play critical roles in how the public comes to understand and view science. Scientific findings are conveyed by researchers in scholarly publications, then transmitted by the mainstream media, which influences public understanding. All along, the process is fraught with language issues that may contribute to misperceptions of science. What can scientists and the media do to more accurately convey the findings of scientific research? This talk examines how science can get distorted as it is communicated and how it can be more faithfully presented — and, consequently, more clearly understood by the public.