Scientists Talking to the Public

There's a sprawling blog conversation going on at ScienceBlogs and elsewhere, sparked by an article by Matthew Nisbet and Chris Mooney in Science magazine. Ironically, as I'm not the first to point out, it's only available to subscribers (although there is a press release). The origin of the irony is that the subject of the article is how scientists should talk to the general public. In particular, Nisbet and Mooney focus on "framing" -- putting whatever you want to talk about into a context that strikes an appropriate chord in your audience. Much back-and-forth -- see long posts by coturnix, Orac, and Nisbet to get some of the flavor -- without reaching a simple consensus. Shocking, I know. But, despite the noise along the way, these conversations really to help make progress. My view on these issues is incredibly complex and well-thought-out, but sadly the margin of this blog post ...