California Ocean Communicators Alliance Workshop August 2007

Summary The Ocean Communicators Workshop “Communicating Science” was the first two-day OCA workshop since the inception of the California Ocean Communicators Alliance in April 2005. It was held on August 20th and 21st in Santa Barbara, California, with more than 50 communicators representing ocean-related agencies, organizations and business in California. The workshop reached the goals of identifying key messages for top ocean topics in California as well as providing workshop participants with expertise and experience in communicating those messages through new and traditional media outlets.

Background
Science communication has been acknowledged as a need in California and nationwide. Beginning in April 2006, members of the Ocean Communicators Alliance (OCA) requested a workshop to help answer the challenges involved in communicating science to the public and the media. In a report from the June 2006 national Conference on Ocean Literacy, the OCA is identified to help carry out public ocean literacy efforts in California. The “Thank You Ocean” campaign, a project of the OCA, is the obvious forum through which the OCA can communicate the ocean literacy messages to the public. The campaign is a California statewide effort that seeks to raise public ocean awareness by calling attention to the ocean as a vital resource and asks Californians to help protect it.

To help the OCA with determining key science messages for California, members were surveyed in advance of the workshop and asked to identify top marine science themes for the state. The three themes identified through the survey were 1) oceans and climate, 2) marine reserves and marine protected areas, and 3) ecosystem based management. In addition, OCA members were also asked to identify which media topics they were most interested in learning about. The results determined many of the exercises for the two-day workshop. For the complete survey results, see Appendix A.

Workshop Activities
The workshop involved a number of different activities including a discussion of challenges and solutions in dealing with scientific researchers and communication, presentations from experts on the top three identified ocean science themes for California, presentations from experts on science communication, group identification of key ocean science messages for California and the “Thank You Ocean” campaign, overview of new media, breakout groups for media specific activities, and a panel discussion with science journalists.

Challenges and Solutions Dealing with Researchers and Communication:
Ocean Communicator Alliance members were asked in an email sent out prior to the workshop to think about the challenges and solutions they had faced with communicating science to the media and to the public. Workshop participants spent one hour during the first day of the workshop discussing this topic. The two main “problem” themes that were identified in the discussion were 1) problems with media understanding science and research and vice versa, and that 2) perception interferes with proper representation of important science themes. Table 1 below lists the identified challenges from the discussion.

Table 1: Challenges and Solutions Dealing with Researchers and Communication

• Challenges: Understanding
• Eliminating jargon
• Prior assumptions
• Media has no knowledge of subject- no background
• Oversimplification, insuring credible sources
• Communicators must translate from scientific language to English get scientists buy-in on translation
• Right tools for each media outlet
• Misunderstanding the scientific process—assuming if debate is occurring, no conclusions have been reached
• Concept of “recreational research” –the idea that scientists are conducting research for their own entertainment
• No easy entry point for scientists to learn media communications
• Challenges: Perception
• Media sensationalizes, motivation is make money Fear/hesitation of management (higher ups) to communicate about a subject
• Science vs. advocacy
• Media’s counterpoint mentality, not balanced, must have two sides no matter how small the opposition voice
• Science and management’s lack of support for professional communicators
• Education and outreach as an afterthought
• “Hollywood” scientists, “Biostitute”
• Peer pressure on scientists not to “showboat” or become media focus
• Media has prior agenda, story already written
• Some scientists requirement to be paid for story/interviews
• Fragmentation of media/ selective exposure to science news
• Expiration date for information and materials
• Editor support for story acceptance
• Dealing with damage control, staying on topic

• Multiple approaches to story to reach different market segments/audiences
• Multimedia necessary today
• Need for communication training for scientists
• Scientists need to listen to what media wants
• Going through the children

“Big” Science Themes for California:
The “big” science themes for California identified by the OCA though the preworkshop survey are: 1) oceans and climate, 2) marine reserves and marine protected areas, and 3) ecosystem based management. For the workshop, participants were provided fact sheets on each identified theme. During the workshop, experts in each topic area gave brief overview presentations on the key points of each theme. For fact sheets see Appendix B: Exhibit 1, 2, and 3. For the PowerPoint presentations on oceans and climate and marine reserves and marine protected areas see Appendix C: Exhibit 1 and 2.

Communicating Science for Understanding:
Tim Zimmerman, Marine Science Learning Specialist, COSIA Program Manager at Lawrence Hall of Science, presented on the challenges of learning science. Included in his presentation was a film titled “A Private Universe” that examines science learning through interviews with high school students and Harvard graduates. To view the film, go to http://www.learner.org/resources/series28.html. To view his presentation, see Appendix D.

Message Box:
Jessica Brown, Assistant Director of Science Communication, Sea Web presented on the Message Box, a tool for helping scientists determine key points for science communication. To view this presentation, see Appendix E: Exhibit 1. To view the Message Box hand-out, go to Appendix E: Exhibit 2.

Key Messages for “Big Science Themes”:
The workshop participants broke out into small groups and using the Message Box template, identified key messages for each of the three “big” science themes for California. The messages were then compiled and discussed by the large group before finalizing into three messages per theme. The key messages identified for each theme were:

Climate Change: (as it relates to the ocean)

• Increased CO2, or carbon dioxide is changing the ocean’s chemistry, causing it to be more acidic and changing its temperature
• Climate change directly impact humans through sea level rise, disrupted food supplies for marine life.
• Scientists are working to determine to full extent of the problems associated with climate change, while governments, businesses and scientists recognize it is happening.

Marine Protected Areas and Marine Reserves: