We define popular science as interpretations of scientific concepts in plain language (i.e., in nontechnical language) for the general audience, who may or may not have a background in science. Climate Change As popular Science (CCAPS) is a nontechnical interpretation of climate change science, intended for the general audience. We have a blog on this topic under the following web address: https://climatechangepopulardiscourse.wordpress.com/ retrieved on October 23, 2016. We have posted most of the chapters in this book as CCAPS blog posts.

Technoscientific developments often have far-reaching consequences, both negative and positive, for the public. Yet, because science has the authority to decide which judgments about scientific issues are sound, public concerns are often dismissed because they are not part of the technoscientific paradigm they question. This book addresses the role of science popularization in that paradox; it explains how science writing works and argues that it can do better at promoting public discussions about science-related issues. To support these arguments, it situates science popularization in its historical and cultural context; provides a conceptual framework for analyzing popular science texts; and examines the rhetorical effects of common strategies used in popular science writing. Twenty-six years after Dorothy Nelkin's groundbreaking book, Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, popular science writing is still not meeting its potential as a public interest genre; Communicating Popular Science explores how it can move closer to doing so.

The communication of scientific research raises big questions about the kind of societies we want to live in. Through a range of case studies, from museums to Facebook to public parks, Exploring Science Communication shows you how to understand and analyse the complex and diverse ways science and society relate in today’s knowledge intensive environments.

Communicating Endangered Species: Extinction, News, and Public Policy is a multidisciplinary environmental communication book that takes a distinctive approach by connecting how media and culture depict and explain endangered species with how policymakers and natural resource managers can or do respond to these challenges in practical terms. Extinction isn’t new. However, the pace of extinction is accelerating globally. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies more than 26,000 species as threatened. The causes are many, including climate change, overdevelopment, human exploitation, disease, overhunting, habitat destruction, and predators. The willingness and the ability of ordinary people, governments, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses to slow this deeply disturbing acceleration are uncertain. Meanwhile, researchers around the world are laboring to better understand and communicate the possibility and implications of extinctions and to discover effective tools and public policies to combat the threats to species survival. This book presents a history of news coverage of endangered species around the world, examining how and why journalists and other communicators wrote what they did, how attitudes have changed, and why they have changed. It draws on the latest research by chapter authors who are a mix of social scientists, communication experts, and natural scientists. Each chapter includes a mass media and/or cultural aspect. This book will be essential reading for students, natural resource managers, government officials, environmental activists, and academics interested in conservation and biodiversity, environmental communication and journalism, and public policy.

The Giant Book of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How is loaded with interesting information and inviting images. It answers all the questions kids really want to know! Through more than 1,000 fascinating facts and hundreds of awe-inspiring photos, kids will uncover answers to questions such as: Why are clownfish and sea anemones such close coral companions?; Why do scientists study dino poop? What is the slimiest and snottiest creature on the planet?; Where is the tallest waterfall?; What were the Vikings really like?; What is the largest living organism?; and Why does your body make so many gross noises? This must-read book includes chapters on animals, nature, amazing places, space, technology, history, the human body, sports, incredible inventions, and science. Kids will also discover record-breaking facts in Top 10 lists and Popular Science quizzes.

This book focuses on the uses of scientific evidence within three types of environmental discourses: popular nonfiction books about the environment; traditional and social media texts created by a grassroots environmental group; and a set of data displays that make arguments about global warming in a variety of media and contexts. It traces the operations of eight commonplaces about science and shows how they recur throughout these contexts, starting with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and ending with contemporary blogs and social media. The commonplaces are shown to embed ideological assumptions and simultaneously challenge those assumptions. In addition, the book addresses the potential dangers involved in relying too heavily on aspects of these commonplaces, and how they can undermine the goals of some of the writers who use them.

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos inspires audiences to look at the universe with new eyes and to appreciate humanity’s importance in it. Sagan’s deft use of rhetorical strategy creates an experience that pushes beyond the limits of a mere “educational” program to reveal a mythic adventure. Although Sagan contributed much to the field of science as well as to public understanding of it, Cosmos remains his signature brand. Cosmos and the Rhetoric of Popular Science builds on Thomas M. Lessl’s observations regarding Cosmos’ connection to the mythic and science fiction. It delves deeply into Sagan’s rhetorical construction of the program in order to understand what elements contributed to its mythos.

Esta tesis doctoral versa sobre el estudio de la construcción de la atribución del significado en la diseminación de la ciencia en la prensa británica a través del análisis de los recursos utilizados por el periodista para integrar en su narración de los hechos científicos lo que otras fuentes externas han dicho. El fenómeno de la atribución en el discurso académico, científico y de los medios de comunicación se ha descrito previamente desde una perspectiva interpersonal mediante el análisis de la evaluación y de la teoría de la valoración (‘appraisal’). Además, otras investigaciones previas se han centrado también en el estudio de cómo los elementos experienciales de la atribución. Sin embargo, el estudio llevado a cabo en esta tesis doctoral trata de proporcionar una descripción más exhaustiva y una visión global de cómo se construye la atribución desde una perspectiva experiencial. El objetivo de esta tesis es explorar cómo los elementos experienciales que construyen la atribución coocurren en cada una de las unidades de voz identificadas y contribuyen tanto a la interacción del periodista con sus lectores como al posicionamiento epistemológico de dicho periodista con respecto de la información narrada.