Most scientists and researchers aren’t prepared to talk to the press or to policymakers—or to deal with backlash. Many researchers have the horror stories to prove it. What’s clear, according to Nancy Baron, is that scientists, journalists and public policymakers come from different cultures. They follow different sets of rules, pursue different goals, and speak their own language. To effectively reach journalists and public officials, scientists need to learn new skills and rules of engagement. No matter what your specialty, the keys to success are clear thinking, knowing what you want to say, understanding your audience, and using everyday language to get your main points across.
In this practical and entertaining guide to communicating science, Baron explains how to engage your audience and explain why a particular finding matters. She explores how to ace your interview, promote a paper, enter the political fray, and use new media to connect with your audience. The book includes advice from journalists, decision makers, new media experts, bloggers and some of the thousands of scientists who have participated in her communication workshops. Many of the researchers she has worked with have gone on to become well-known spokespeople for science-related issues. Baron and her protégées describe the risks and rewards of “speaking up,” how to deal with criticism, and the link between communications and leadership. The final chapter, ‘Leading the Way’ offers guidance to scientists who want to become agents of change and make your science matter. Whether you are an absolute beginner or a seasoned veteran looking to hone your skills, Escape From the Ivory Tower can help make your science understood, appreciated and perhaps acted upon.
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“By challenging scientists to find and use their own voice, Nancy Baron has done more than anyone in the last decade to raise public awareness about our imperiled oceans. Her fingerprints can be found on nearly every preeminent paper and salient symposium. Not since Sir Peter Medawar published the classic Advice to a Young Scientist has so much wisdom been shared so concisely. Whether you are a scientist or writer, young or old, you don’t have to read this book—unless you are committed to saving our blue planet.”
(Larry Crowder Director, Duke Center for Marine Conservation)
"At last! The definitive manual on communicating science effectively in an era of environmental change—Baron's book provides the practical tools to make a difference.”
(Diana Wall Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability,)
“Nancy Baron has been helping scientists talk to the media and to their public patrons for a decade…Her extraordinary leadership has changed the lives of young scientists; here she has produced a book that will help both senior scientists and their students…to deal with journalists, interviewers, the Rotary Club, and even Congressional committees.”
(Donald Kennedy Editor of Science magazine 2000-2008, Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Adm)
“Nancy Baron is a master of the art of science communication. Escape from the Ivory Tower is essential reading for scientists who want their work understood by the public and decision makers.”
(Natasha Loder Science and Technology Correspondent, The Economist)
"[Readers will] be grateful for the investment when they can pull... [the] book off the shelf in times of need. Aspiring journalists and public information officers will also find valuable insights into scientific culture and the way their own work is perceived... Escape from the Ivory Tower should be embraced by a broad scientific audience; it’s impossible to predict when...you may be jolted out of your comfort zone and forced to convince the world that your data matter."
(American Scientist)
"In the world of science we sometimes forget that a book can be an easy, pleasant read and still teach us quite a bit. Nancy Baron knows that, and she has delivered that book. The result is unlike anything you’ve read before—and it is something you need to begin reading now. This is not a book for your bookshelf. It is a book for your backpack, your briefcase, your graduate students, and the trunk of your car...This is a book to be read, enjoyed, and dogeared— assuming, of course, you want your science to matter."
(BioScience)
"Overall, this book is valuable and a worthwhile read for marine scientists. Almost all of us can improve our outreach efforts... Escape from the Ivory Tower has helpful hints for all of us interested in various levels of outreach." (Oceanography)
"Even if you believe that you will never have an occasion to share your science beyond your laboratory or the kitchen table, this book may persuade you otherwise. Consider adding it to your library as an investment to bring credible science to public discourse."
(Lab Matters)
“No one understands scientists the way Nancy Baron does. This book helps connect the worlds of science, journalism, and policy in very entertaining and insightful ways. If you care about linking science with action, this is the book to read."
(Pat Matson Scientific Director of the Leopold Leadership Program)
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
Nancy Baron is Outreach Director of COMPASS, the Communications Partnership for Science and the Sea. She designed and leads the communications trainings for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program. She and her COMPASS team offer a wide range of workshops for academic scientists as well as scientists who work for the government and non-governmental organizations in North America and abroad. Her experience as a Canadian National Parks biologist and science writer inspired her to help bridge the gaps among scientists, journalists, and policymakers. An ardent naturalist, Baron has led natural history expeditions around the world. She wrote the popular introductory field guide, Birds of the Pacific Northwest, as a way to help people engage with the natural world.
Product Details
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (August 13, 2010)
Nancy Baron is the outreach director of the Communications Partnership for Science and the Sea, known as COMPASS. She designed and leads the communications trainings for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program. Nancy's new book, Escape from the Ivory Tower (Island Press, August 2010), is a frank, practical, and entertaining guide for scientists who want to engage their audiences, ace their interviews, promote their papers, and enter the political fray. She and her COMPASS team offer a wide range of workshops for academic scientists as well as scientists who work for government, and non-governmental organizations in North America and abroad. Her experience as both a biologist for Canadian National Parks and as a science writer inspired her to help bridge the gaps among scientists, journalists, and policymakers. Baron has won numerous science writing awards including National Magazine,Science and Society and Western Magazine awards in Canada. An ardent naturalist, Baron has led natural history expeditions around the world. She wrote the popular introductory field guide, Birds of the Pacific Northwest (Lone Pine Publishing, 1997), as a way to help people engage with the natural world. Nancy is based at NCEAS, the National Centre of Ecological Analysis in Santa Barbara.
Nancy Baron has done more to catalyze environmental scientists to communicate effectively to the media and to policy makers than anyone I can think of. Baron's workshops have taught many of us how to reach out beyond the ivory tower so our science can really make a difference in the world. It's helped me clarify, craft and target my message. Even if you aren't ready to reach out beyond the university, this book will help you communicate more effectively to students, colleagues and funders. I don't know of another book that does what this one does.
This book is an invaluable resource to scientists who are interested in increasing the broader impacts of their work. Focusing on several different aspects of outreach, including a wide range of media (from blogs through TV interviews) the book gives factual, clear and direct pointers for scientists interested in taking those first timid steps outside the lab. The book is written in a matter-of fact style, and nearly every page has useful hints from a variety of voices. Clearly the author and her team are speaking from years of experience in helping scientists navigate the mazes of press interviews and policy outreach.
I think the strongest message to scientists that this book conveys is to not be afraid to take the step outside the lab. If you do solid science this book will help you make that science matter more. If you know that your work is interesting, this book will help you share your passion with others, and if your work has the potential to improve people's lives, the environment or our understanding of how the world works, this book will help you make sure that your message gets across to the widest range of people with the least amount of distortion.
I have been waiting for a book like this to help me. This book has already inspired me to reach out to non-traditional venues and has helped me become more enthusiastic about the work that I already love.
The disturbing data and trends regarding science literacy in the U.S. should be of concern for all who care about the future of our world and the legacy we are leaving to future generations. As a researcher, I accept my share of the blame for not doing a good enough job in making my work more easily available and comprehensible to the broader community. For many of us, its not been for a lack of interest and motivation, but simply due to a lack of training and skills in communication. During my graduate training, I never had a course or even a lecture on communicating science, and many of my academic mentors discouraged efforts at outreach. Nancy Baron has done a wonderful job of conveying key principles in how to reach out and explain why science matters, with specific examples and concise recommendations. I must acknowledge my bias in this review, as I have had the good fortune of attending some of Nancy's communication workshops. Many of us who have been coached by her in developing and improving our communication skills were looking for materials we could use to help teach our students and encourage our colleagues. This book hits the target. I find it to be a great reminder and I have added it to my required reading for my graduate students.
This book does a great job of drawing scientists out of the laboratory and into the limelight, and giving them the practical advice and skills they need to be comfortable and effective in its glare. The author is particularly knowledgeable, since she is both an experienced journalist and a professional communications trainer. What's more, the book offers valuable tips from prominent science journalists and policy makers; and telling stories from scientists themselves about successful, and not-so-successful, communications efforts.
The book's guidance ranges from how to develop and communicate messages, to how to give effective interviews and interact with policy makers. And besides practical information, the book offers extremely useful insights into the culture of journalists and policy makers, giving scientists the understanding they need to communicate effectively across what is sometimes a considerable cultural gulf.
The book is both a savvy how-to book and a persuasive "why-to" book, explaining why scientists need to escape from their ivory tower. It warns for example that those researchers who elect not to engage with journalists and policy makers to communicate their knowledge of environmental issues "may be ceding the debate to those who know far less, or arrive with a self-serving agenda that shortchanges the best interests of society and the natural world."
Although the book is aimed primarily at environmental scientists, it is invaluable for any researcher seeking to reach a wider audience. In fact, given that every scientist will find it necessary to communicate his/her work more broadly at some point, this excellent book should be on every scientist's bookshelf.
For many science may rank slightly lower than jigsaw puzzling in the dull topics category, however few sectors have been so consistently dogged by controversy throughout human history.
The conflict is inevitably the same, while the specifics may vary: What scientific evidence shows us contracts what is commonly believed, and often wanted to be the truth, and resistance is felt through the concentrated oppositional effort of those in power (whether petrol companies, religious groups or governments) and the enforced ignorance of the general populace.
Escape from the Ivory Tower follows a trend of books that escape from the polemic section, and actually work on the issue of this disconnect from science, from the academics' and researchers' perspectives.
Rather than attack opponents of science, which admittedly must be tempting, but ultimately unhelpful - Ivory Tower focuses on what scientists can do to make their work more accessible, relevant and have a greater impact on `real' life.
More formally written than books such as "Unscientific America" and "Don't be Such a Scientist" Ivory Tower works more as a `how to' book and probably doesn't have much in it to attract non-scientists. Ivory Tower also mostly avoids commenting on some of the scientific controversy of modern times, so don't expect an opinion on evolution or global warming beyond a discussion of how the science is presented.
I would still recommend a look in for those non-geeks interested in the sector and some of the issues surrounding science currently. In particular the chapter on backlash is fascinating, and there is advice valid for all people concerned with making scientifically valid arguments, even those of us who haven't yet made it into any ivory towers!
