Que Sera Sera Films

Jennifer Lewis & Mahmud Rahman

April 10, 2020

No Time for Fear in Science Communication

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

“Why do you want to go to college? For an MRS degree?” “You are chasing after a mirage”. “You are naïve”. Comments like these we have received all our lives. We are a female and a brown skinned male. But we are not much different from everyone else. Everyone goes through life being judged by someone. By many someone’s. The quotes can echo in your head. But that is as far as you must let them go. They have never stopped us from taking risks for the science we believed in or in educating others.

Long story short, we both moved to science communication after completing  biology graduate degrees.Now part of our work involves teaching other scientists what we have learned and how to use it. We recently attended at a science conference where we co-led a workshop about using storytelling to communicate more effectively. The goal was to improve the communication skills of audience members to help them save the species they cared about. Everything was going perfectly. The attendees were excited and engaged. Then out of the audience came a question from a young woman. She wanted to know, what could be suggested since she was fearful of communicating in this new way. She said she feared it could jeopardize her career. She wanted to know what could she do? This was resounded by others, and others, until, nearly all the attendees in the room were agreeing and wanting to be told how. They were of every age (from 22 to 65) and from all over the world (N. America, EU, Middle East, S. America).

I was taken aback. First, I (Jennifer the speaker) thought what year is it? Are we still in this place? Second, I thought, how can it be that these people are afraid to just simply tell stories as introductions to what they will communicate (e.g., for a Facebook post or the first three min of floor time they get to present at a staff or board members meeting). But the scariest thing of all to us, was that here we had this room of scientists. Working to protect species, species that BADLY need them, who were afraid to challenge the norm slightly, because they feared others would judge them as less serious and that this would somehow impact them personally. Who might refrain from using these communication skills because of this fear, even if it meant they would be less effective as conservationists. Wow. Shit. Lack of funding, overloaded with work, not enough man power, trying to protect species in places where the people are starving, mafia, war. These are the things we thought we had to overcome. We honestly never thought the wall could be within us. I sat there blinking for a second because now I was the one with fear. Fear knowing, women and men who were in the thick of the battle, might not pick up the gun. Even though the bear was charging straight at them. So I told them the truth. You may not like this, but there is no time for fear. These species will no longer exist if those that understand them and their plight don’t do the best job they can to save them.

Most of us have evolved with a desire to follow. It is the easiest and most efficient path forward to survive. But like it or not, if you choose to be a scientist, then your job is to lead. Because you are THE expert in your field, on YOUR topic, on YOUR species. And we no longer live in a world that existed like when Jane Goodall was young, or EO Wilson, when we could just enjoy our time with nature, write a paper for a journal, present at a conference and then go home. We can tell you that Jane Goodall understands this now and so does EO Wilson. They know something shifted. They know that we have been destroying the environment and removing species at an astronomical rate. And that now communicating based on our expertise (to non-peers) is a job requirement. That is, if we want species to exist besides domestic cattle, dogs and cats.

WE HAD TO SHARE THIS STORY FOR THREE REASONS?

THE FEAR OF SCIENCE COMMUNICATION BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC EXISTS AND IT IS EXTENSIVE.

Science communicators need to be aware, again (see articles below for additional writing on this topic) that we have an issue that may be unexpectedly deep and widespread, even after significant talk has occurred about the subject and the need to change.

TEACHING SCIENCE COMMUNICATION NEEDS TO INCLUDE HOW TO OVERCOME FEAR.

Science communication educators need to understand this is no longer just a battle to teach as well as we can and as fast as we can, but that our students may actually fear using these tools. Therefore, if we are really going to be effective, we have to continue to promote a larger culture change within science (greater than at least we had expected).  Additionally, we all need to make it part of our curriculum to address this fear and how to provide solutions for dealing with it.

THOSE WORKING IN CONSERVATION MUST UNDERSTAND THEIR ROLE.

Individuals and organizations (including academia) working on the front lines for species must have an internal discussion within yourselves. You must consider what are you doing in this field? Why did you choose this job? Do you want these species to have a fighting chance? Are you willing to do all you can to share what you learn and know so these species can be saved?

We all need to check our direction from time to time and reassess the risks we are willing to take to achieve our goals. And for those that guide, to determine how can we do better to help others more easily climb over the fence. We hope this article will serve to push scientists and those that work to educate, further outside the comfort zones.

ADDENDUM:

For further reading we suggest the following two articles. Note however, there has been a great deal written on whether scientists should be advocates, and how to communicate science better.

Kotcher, J. E., Myers, T. A., Vraga, E. K., Stenhouse, N., & Maibach, E. W. (2017). Does engagement in advocacy hurt the credibility of scientists? Results from a randomized national survey experiment. Environmental Communication, 11(3), 415-429.

Rosen, J. 2019, Dec. 17. Climate change fears propel scientists out of the lab and into the world. Los Angeles Times. Climate and Environment.

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