The Science of Communicating Science

Craig Cormick is one of Australia’s leading science communicators, with over 30 years’ experience. He is the former President of the Australian Science Communicators, an award-winning author of more than 25 books, and is widely published in research journals, including those of Nature and Cell. He specialises in communicating complex science issues and has taught writing and public relations at universities in Australia and conducted communication workshops worldwide.

Acknowledgements

Introduction



THE GROUND RULES

1 – What makes good science communication? (in fewer than 280 characters)

2 – Why we need to communicate science better

3 – Burying the deficit model

4 – Objective! Your honour!

5 – What do the public really think about science?

6 – There is no one public: Making sense of segmentation



COMMUNICATION TOOLS

7 – Messages and metaphors

8 – Once upon a time: Storytelling

9 – Trust me, I’m a scientist

10 – Media matters

11 – Being a social media superstar

12 – I’ve been framed! The art of framing

13 – Who’s afraid of public speaking?

14 – Getting engaged

15 – P-values: Policy and politics

16 – Evaluation: Metrics, damn metrics and statistics



WHEN THINGS GET HARD

17 – I’m a believer! Understanding different beliefs

18 – The risky business of communicating risk

19 – Valuing values

20 – Can you really change behaviours?

21 – Communicating controversies: The good, the bad and the ugly

22 – Debunking bunkum



SCIENCE COMMUNICATION ISSUES

23 – Fantastic ethics and where to find them

24 – Why we don’t actually know what we think we know

25 – Last words: Sermon on the Endnote



About the author

Endnotes

Index