Purpose of the Dialogue Today

1. Toward The Tipping Point: Igniting a Social Epidemic of Scientists, Engineers and Technology Roles on Television

2. Sharon Campbell Waters, Ph.D.Tidewater Community CollegeJune 29, 2006National Science FoundationArlington, VA…initiating a dialogue about the creation, implementation, and publication of social epidemics

3. Purpose of the Dialogue Today • dialogos – through the word • A dialogue is a stream of meaning flowing among us, through us and between us. This will make possible a flow of meaning in the whole group, out of which may emerge some new understanding. It’s something new which may not have been in the starting point at all. It’s something creative…and this shared meaning is the “glue” or “cement” that holds people and societies together.

4. Fictional Representations Matter... • …the science and technology we ultimately see are partly shaped by the images of the work which exist outside the confines of the laboratory report or the scientific paper (Turney, 1998, p. 3). • While news and other non-fictional treatments of SET fields, and particular roles within them, help shape public perceptions, it may be fictional depictions and accounts that have the greatest influence.

5. One of the Recommendations from the NSF Public Affairs Advisory Group... • #2: NSF should strengthen its relationship with the traditional broadcast and print media in order to establish NSF as a leading resource for SET information news, and expertise. A few strategies to achieve this objective are: • Field a group of experts that the media can turn to for objective information on recent advances and discoveries • Find imaginative ways to link science stories with headline news, introduce science content into popular news topics and provide essential, unbiased information about complicated or controversial science-related issues that affect people’s lives.

6. Among Recent Findings from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science & Engineering Indicators (2006): • Television is still the main source of information about S&T, but the Internet is a strong competitor. • Most Americans do not think they are well informed about S&T. While most have positive attitudes about the benefits of S&T, some have reservations (moral issues, etc.) • Surveys on topics ranging from the environment to nanotechnology reveal a variety of perceptions and concerns. • But most importantly is the finding that:

7. Television and Other Forms of Popular Culture Influence What Adults Know and Think About Science • Of the comprehensive list (Table 7-1) of prime-time science programs on television in 2005, none of the 29 shows are on broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, UPN, or WB) and only 3 are on PBS, the networks received by nearly all households. • THEREFORE,

8. …The Time has Come to Ignite A Social Epidemic in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Roles on Television • According to Gladwell (2002) The Tipping Point is the biography of an idea…the phenomena of word of mouth. • Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do (p. 7). • The possibility of sudden change is at the center of the idea of The Tipping Point. Tipping is about a specific idea permeating through society. • The Tipping Point is the magical moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point (p. 12). Tipping happens only when a special person comes along, grabs an idea, and passes it on.

9. All Epidemics have Tipping Points. Wanted: Mavens, Connectors, Salesmen (women) • The Law of the Few states there are exceptional people who are capable of starting epidemics: • Mavens - Mavens have the knowledge and the social skills to start word-of-mouth epidemics. Information brokers. Data banks. What sets Mavens apart, though, is not so much what they know but how they pass it along (p. 67). Mavens provide the message. • Connectors - are social glue. They spread the message. • Salesmen(women) - A select group of people with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. • Are you a Maven, a Connector, or a Salesman (woman)? Or all three?

10. Social Epidemics of SET Roles on Television • 1816--Frankenstein - Hollywood didn’t create “the governing myth of modern biology” (Turney, 1998, p. 3), Mary Shelley did. • Shelley’s Frankenstein has long been a versatile frame for interpreting mankind’s relationship with technology. She didn’t offer predictions about the future of science, but she did at the beginning of the modern era, identify concerns which go to the heart of our response to science.

11. Frankenstein (1816-Present) • To make his creature, Victor Frankenstein “dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave” and frequented dissecting rooms and slaughterhouses. In Mary Shelley’s day, as in our own, the health human form delighted and intrigued artists, physicians, and anatomists. But corpses, decaying tissue, and body parts stirred almost universal disgust. Alive or dead, whole or in pieces, human bodies arouse strong emotion--and account for part of Frankenstein’senduring hold on us.

12. STAR TREK • 1966 - Created by Gene Roddenberry. In March and April 1977, NASA produced a television commercial with Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) who, surrounded by models of the Space Shuttle and the Enterprise, encouraged qualified minorities and women to apply to NASA. Although a previous yearlong recruitment drive had garnered only a hundred applications from women and fewer than thirty-five from minorities, after Nichols’ commercial aired, NASA received over 8,000 applications, 1,649 from women an over 1,000 from minorities. Three African American astronaut trainees were selected: Guy Bluford, Frederick Gregory, and Ron McNair.

13. CSI, CSI NY, CSI Miami • 2001 - (Also, Crossing Jordan, Cold Case, Law and Order, Forensic Files, Bones) - According to U.S. News & World Report, television’s diet of forensic fantasy projects the image that all cases are solvable by highly technical science, and if you offer less than that, it is viewed as reasonable doubt. The burden it places on prosecutors is overwhelming. Prosecutors have named the phenomenon: “the CSI effect.”

14. NUMB3RS…Potential Social Epidemic? • 2005 – a drama about an FBI agent who recruits his mathematical-genius brother to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles. • Provides interactive “We All Use Math Everyday” website for viewers – http://www.cbs.com/primetime/numb3rs/about.shtml

15. Notable Mavens, Connectors, and Salespeople of Social Epidemics in SET Fields • Leonardo DaVinci (Renaissance Man) • Gene Roddenberry • Florence Nightingale • Louis Pasteur • You

16. …Coming to a Cell Phone Near You... • Live television - How much would you be willing to pay to watch your favorite science/engineering show? • While users already can get video on their mobile phones through their cellular phone companies, that information robs tremendous capacity from the carriers’ networks. • Instead, new technologies use separate antennas in metro areas to beam TV signals directly to cell phones, in much the same way broadcast television has worked for decades. • Will provide greater opportunities for science/engineering shows to “tip”! • According to Time magazine, today’s children see the screen as an environment to be explored, inhabited, shared and shaped (March 27, 2006)

17. References • Gladwell, M. (2002). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. • National Science Foundation (2006). Science and engineering indicators (annual reports). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. • Roane, K. R. (2005). The CSI effect. U.S. News & World Report. Available online at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/05 0425/25csi.htm • Turney, J. (1998). Frankenstein’s footsteps: Science, genetics, and popular culture. Yale University Press: New Haven.