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Welcome to Econnect Communication’s September 2005 newsletter –
‘What are people talking about?’
This issue explores current international issues and provides
some tips for networking.
We are also trialling some regular features this month—the Surf
Club (interesting websites) and a Quotation of the Month. We
hope you enjoy them. Let us know!
David Clarke farewells the Econnect team next month to take up
the position of Executive Officer for the Great Ocean Road Coast
Committee in Victoria. It has been terrific having David’s
expertise and skills as part of our team during the past six
months and we wish him well with this future position. But of
course we’ll stay in touch!
Regards,
Econnect Communication
Jenni Metcalfe, Michelle Riedlinger, Lynne Goodwin, David
Clarke, Mary O’Callaghan
In this issue: What are people
talking about?
Petrol prices
Beijing
gossip
Networking tips
Surf club
Quotation of the month
Subscribe
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Contact us
Petrol prices
By
Michelle Riedlinger
Petrol
prices are the talk this month – so why not take a break
from driving and donate your petrol money to renewable
energy research, such as the work done by RISE - http://rise.org.au/index.html
Donations can be
made to RISE:
1. via cheque
(made out to "The Research Institute for Sustainable Energy")
and posted to:
Research
Institute for Sustainable Energy
Murdoch
University
Murdoch Drive
MURDOCH WA
6150
2. by credit card
(preferably with a letter or by phone in order to provide the
relevant details - whether the card is Visa or Master, the card
number, the expiry date, the amount) so that they can provide a
receipt. You can call them on 08 9360 6623 or fax them on 08
9360 6624
All donations accepted - no matter
how big or small!
And now to
gossip: Beijing science communication
news
By Michelle Riedlinger
Discussions at the recent PCST Symposium held
in June in Beijing held some surprises for S&T communication.
People on the international scene are talking about…
‘Participation rather than promotion’
was emphasised in the context of community relevance. Examples
of dialogue, hands-on activities, practical involvement and
participation were provided, mostly on a small scale at the
local level.
Initiatives driven by communities
at their venues and peer-to-peer communication were seen to be
essential for long-term impacts. However, selling these
activities to funding bodies and evaluating the impacts
effectively were still challenges.
Renewed emphasis on collaboration and
partnerships across many disciplines and cultural pursuits sees S&T
communicators moving into areas of engagement with urban and
rural communities that were unknown even a few years ago.
New and more complex problems
are emerging in discussions, indicating that S&T communication,
as a field, is maturing. Some questions raised were:
- Is there a lack of public confidence in science or is this
just a perception?
- Can
we really have demand-driven approaches to science
communication?
- How much should we be focusing on controversy?
-
What is the influence of marketing aspects on urban and rural
communities and what is their contribution to science
communication?
Achieving public trust and support for science
is top of the list for many science communicators. It is
perceived to be best achieved through dialogue (or ‘trialogue’,
emphasising information and idea sharing should occur between
more than two groups, e.g. scientists, communities and policy
makers).
A cultural shift in thinking for S&T
institutions is needed as some of the approaches suggested for better
communication with communities challenged traditional ways of
communicating. These included open-ended dialogue and
acknowledging when traditional ways may work better than modern
ways, backing this up with research that looks at what was
important then and what is important now;.
S&T institutions were also under pressure to
recognise that public awareness is better than public
appreciation (and not deliberately try to influence opinion);
that funding for long-term programs acknowledging this change
takes time; and linking with the arts is important.
Evaluating the effectiveness of S&T
communication efforts
has never been easy but the pressure from institutions,
funders, government agencies and policy makers for
accountability and evidence-based research to address community
needs makes this more of an imperative than ever.
Assessing if trust has been increased
is not only difficult to measure but fails when there is a lack
of consensus on who are the “experts”. Changes in behaviour need
to be assessed as much as changes in attitudes but these studies
rarely occur outside of social psychology laboratories. Surveys
and focus groups are proliferating, but a lot of work must be
done on questions if the results are to have meaning for
assessing the effectiveness of particular communication
interventions.
Innovative evaluation methods
for investigating the depth of S&T communication effectiveness
involve specifying desired relationships and then assessing if
these are working; and outcome mapping to look at changes in
behaviour of targeted groups/individuals.
Practical tips:
Networking
By Jenni Metcalfe
1.
Accept invitations to events where you
might meet interesting people, even if the events don’t seem to be directly
connected with your work – e.g. I went to the launch of the
shortlist for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards recently
and met all sorts of people, which stimulated me to think of all
sorts of ideas for doing things differently.
2.
Follow up meetings with interesting or
relevant people with an email or even organise a meeting with
them
– e.g. I met some interesting people working in NRM
communication in a Qantas Club a few months ago, and have since
followed up with two of them via a personal meeting and email.
3.
And when you’re at an event or a meeting
and don’t know anyone, introduce yourself to someone or even
a small group and then ask them questions about themselves.
You’ll be surprised at how quickly the time passes and how much
you find out—most people love talking about themselves.
4.
Join email lists where people are having
interesting discussions; contribute to such lists with your thoughts
(and ensure your contact details are at the bottom of your
email); e.g. for those of you not members of Australian Science
Communicators – try
www.asc.asn.au. They have an email list that anyone can
subscribe to, although only members can post to the email list
(but membership is pretty cheap).
5.
Make the effort to attend regular
meetings of organisations you belong to, even if the topic of the monthly meeting
doesn’t sound that interesting! Who knows who you will meet
during the drinks or the dinner.
6.
And when all else fails, there is always
alcohol – invite people for drinks at your place or a nearby watering
hole; Friday afternoons are a good time… and for all those who
happen to be around West End in Brisbane on a Friday afternoon,
drop in and have a drink with us on the back deck; we always
have a few cold ones in the fridge and a nice bottle of red
nearby! Hope to see you soon.
Surf club
The "Fostering Sustainable Behaviour" listserv links program
managers with one another over a wide range of behaviour change
programs (e.g. waste reduction, energy and water efficiency,
watershed protection, modal transportation shifts, etc.).
If you would like to subscribe, do one of the following:
* To receive each message sent to the listserv simply send an
email to
web@cbsm.com with
"Subscribe" in the subject, or
* To receive one email per day that contains all of the messages
sent to the listserv that day simply send an email to
web@cbsm.com with
"Subscribe Digest" in the subject.
The listserv discussions will also be archived at the Fostering
Sustainable Behaviour website (www.cbsm.com).
Quotation of the month
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not
simpler." Albert Einstein. |
