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January 2011
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On Monday January 24th the Chairman if IABM, Claire Martin was asked to be a guest speaker in a special session of the 91st Annual American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting.
The session was the 11th Presidential Forum: Communicating Weather and Climate. The AMS President Peggy LeMone, as an introduction to the Forum, posted the following message on the AMS Meetings web site:
The session was the 11th Presidential Forum: Communicating Weather and Climate. The AMS President Peggy LeMone, as an introduction to the Forum, posted the following message on the AMS Meetings web site:
A little over a year ago, when I was asked to choose a theme for the 2011 AMS Annual Meeting, I was drawn immediately to do something with communication. Within families, among colleagues and acquaintances, and even in parts of the AMS, communication about climate change had sometimes turned from a conversation into an argument. But that was not my only concern. Rather, it was becoming more and more difficult to find out real news: the media were increasingly flooded with lots of opinions, and one had to burrow down to find the facts. Ironically, coverage of the day-to-day weather seemed better than ever. Or was it? Coverage of the 2009 French airplane crash over the Atlantic fumbled at first, as no one seemed to have their facts straight. In addition, Hurricane Katrina provided a stark reminder of the importance of communicating with diverse groups of people. With the number of journal pages increasing geometrically, and the field becoming broader, how well do scientists even communicate with each other? Some have asked if the peer-review process even works. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, how well are we getting our messages out to the public? Are we really communicating?
On Monday, the Presidential Forum will deal with issues encountered by the media in communicating about weather and climate. Bob Ryan, a long-time weather broadcaster in Washington, D.C., will moderate the panel, which will consist of Tom Skilling of WGN/TV and the Chicago Tribune; Claire Martin, the Chief Meteorologist of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Chairperson of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorology; Doyle Rice, weather editor of USA Today; and Martin Storksdieck, director of the Board on Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council and a research fellow at the Institute for Learning Innovation.
We had a huge turn out, some 1500 participants came to listen. The discussion began with brief bios and intros from each of the participants and, once we got the dialogue going, we turned the conversation over to the floor. Some of the questions discussed included the following: How are stories chosen? Where does your scientific information come from? What are the impacts of blogs/tweets and other modern methods of communication on what people learn about weather and climate? And, finally, how can the AMS community help out the media to do a better overall job of communicating weather and climate.
It was a lively, fascinating discussion.. and one that I can see repeated around the world amongst scientists and media as the desire to "get the word out" becomes an increasingly larger aspect of research.
Claire Martin
On Monday, the Presidential Forum will deal with issues encountered by the media in communicating about weather and climate. Bob Ryan, a long-time weather broadcaster in Washington, D.C., will moderate the panel, which will consist of Tom Skilling of WGN/TV and the Chicago Tribune; Claire Martin, the Chief Meteorologist of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Chairperson of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorology; Doyle Rice, weather editor of USA Today; and Martin Storksdieck, director of the Board on Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council and a research fellow at the Institute for Learning Innovation.
We had a huge turn out, some 1500 participants came to listen. The discussion began with brief bios and intros from each of the participants and, once we got the dialogue going, we turned the conversation over to the floor. Some of the questions discussed included the following: How are stories chosen? Where does your scientific information come from? What are the impacts of blogs/tweets and other modern methods of communication on what people learn about weather and climate? And, finally, how can the AMS community help out the media to do a better overall job of communicating weather and climate.
It was a lively, fascinating discussion.. and one that I can see repeated around the world amongst scientists and media as the desire to "get the word out" becomes an increasingly larger aspect of research.
Claire Martin
