Science in Public: Communication, Culture and Credibility

by Steve Miller (Author), Jane Gregory (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1998

  $5.84

  Is an understanding of science important, and what are the issues involved in communicating it? Science in Public uniquely draws together the broad range of theory and practice of public understanding of science. In order to address these and other questions that face today's technological society, this book examines the history of communicating science from the eighteenth century through Michael Faraday and Thomas Huxley, and on to the present day. Detailed contemporary case studies offer insights into the communication and understanding of science. In Science in Public the ideas of sociologists and communications researchers rub shoulders with the expectations of politicians and the hopes of educators. The public is here, and so is science, in both their idealized and real-world guises. The book's scope is broad, as is the subject.

• New

  Paperback
  2000

  $27.16

  Does the general public need to understand science? And if so, is it scientists' responsibility to communicate? Critics have argued that, despite the huge strides made in technology, we live in a scientifically illiterate society- one that thinks about the world and makes important decisions without taking scientific knowledge into account. But is the solution to this illiteracy to deluge the layman with scientific information? Or does science news need to be focused around specific issues and organized into stories that are meaningful and relevant to people's lives? In this unprecedented, comprehensive look at a new field, Jane Gregory and Steve Miller point the way to a more effective public understanding of science in the years ahead.