mooney on science issue cycles and

Mooney on science issue cycles and tipping points ...

Chris Mooney wrote about science issue cycles in the Huffington Post

today, and about the reasons for global warming finally hitting

mainstream media in a way that systematically captured public

attention:

"2005 saw several key developments, including a focus on global

warming at the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, a record temperature year

globally, and most of all, Hurricane Katrina. The latter sparked

unprecedented levels of discussion of the relationship between

global warming and hurricanes in particular. ...

There can be little doubt, then, that rising levels of media

coverage of global warming over the past several years have helped

the issue reach an apparent tipping point. Yet we can't simply

point to the total volume of attention -- we must also consider the

content of press coverage over time. Several seeming shifts in the

narratives that journalists have been telling may have further

contributed to progress on the issue

(Click here for the full article.)

The idea of issue cycles, of course, is directly relevant to the

debates surrounding nanotech. Why and when will nano go mainstream?

And why does it matter? The answer, of course, is much more complex

than the naive speculations among some scientists about "Prey" and its

potential impact on the public. And the simplistic comparisons between

a potential movie version of "Prey" and "An Inconvenient Truth" make

little sense, based on what we know from decades of media effects

research.

As Mooney outlines nicely, "An Inconvenient Truth" was just one of a

myriad of interrelated factors that helped put global warming on the

public agenda. And its impact was largely indirect and contingent on

the media coverage triggered by pseudo events, such as the Oscar the

film won and its unlikely commercial success at the box office. Matt

Nisbet also discussed some of the parallel dynamics for nanotech over

at Framing Science last week.

The Huffington Post piece, of course, is also part of the events

surrounding the release of Mooney's new book Storm World. I haven't

had a chance to look at the book yet, but I know Mooney's previous

work, and if anything he is an excellent journalist. I am sure Storm

Wars will just provide more evidence of that. I will keep you posted.