Von Burg, Ron (Author)
The specialized vocabularies and complex methodologies of scientific practice complicate efforts both to communicate scientific information to lay publics and to enable those publics to sort out competing scientific claims when public policy decisions hang in the balance. Consequently, technical experts strive to invent rhetorical practices and argumentative strategies that appeal to nonscientific audiences. One such strategy involves the use of popular fictional films to support technical arguments that bear on public policy questions. Film references are not simply clever labels or cursory illustrative examples, but important communicative acts that serve a unique rhetorical function in public argument on scientific matters. Scientists, science journalists, and science educators use films as metaphors, narratives, or heuristics to help galvanize public attention or teach scientific and technological principles to nonscientific publics. However, this rhetorical exercise invites debate over the appropriateness and efficacy of using fictional films to educate publics about factual science. The citation of film as evidence in public argument expands the rhetorical landscape to include texts that transcend traditional modes of address within the scientific community. This dissertation draws from rhetorical theory and film studies theory to investigate how science interlocutors reference films in public discussions of science. It examines three public discussions of science and the film references highlighted in such discussions: _The China Syndrome_ and the Three Mile Island accident, _GATTACA_ and policy debates over genetic science controls, and _The Day After Tomorrow_ and climate stewardship policies. Each case study reveals how advocates articulate and maintain the boundaries of acceptable scientific arguments. By attending to how the use of films as resources for the invention of arguments, this research suggests avenues for engaging scientific controversies that are not predicated on intimate knowledge of a particular scientific practice.
...MoreDescription On the way that scientists, science journalists, and science educators use “popular fictional films to support technical arguments that bear on public policy questions...to help galvanize public attention or teach scientific and technological principles to nonscientific publics.” (from the abstract) Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 67/01 (2006): 175. UMI pub. no. 3206843.
Article
Jia, Hepeng;
Liu, Li;
(2014)
Unbalanced Progress: The Hard Road from Science Popularisation to Public Engagement with Science in China
(/isis/citation/CBB001420043/)
Article
Esmat Babaii;
Fatemeh Asadnia;
(2021)
“If a black hole is an oyster, then . . .”: The discoursal trends of popularization in science fiction movies
(/isis/citation/CBB340844947/)
Article
Jan Domaradzki;
(2023)
From evil demiurge to caring hero: images of geneticists in the movies
(/isis/citation/CBB948371310/)
Article
Adelene Buckland;
(2021)
Charles Dickens, Man of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB070659844/)
Article
David K. Hecht;
(2021)
Embracing Mystery: Radiation Risks and Popular Science Writing in the Early Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB155434883/)
Article
Frank, Scott;
(2003)
Reel Reality: Science Consultants in Hollywood
(/isis/citation/CBB000640419/)
Article
Steinke, Jocelyn;
(2005)
Cultural Representations of Gender and Science: Portrayals of Female Scientists and Engineers in Popular Films
(/isis/citation/CBB000660447/)
Thesis
Gonder, Patrick;
(2007)
Like a Monstrous Jigsaw: Genetics, Evolution and the Body in the Horror Filmsof the 1950s
(/isis/citation/CBB001561295/)
Article
Francesco Paolo de Ceglia;
Fabio Lusito;
(2021)
In the Footsteps of Galileo: History of Science in Italian TV Films and Series in the Nineteen-Sixties and Seventies
(/isis/citation/CBB970543361/)
Article
Dörries, Matthias;
(2008)
The “Winter” Analogy Fallacy: From Superbombs to Supervolcanoes
(/isis/citation/CBB000931789/)
Article
Gavroglu, Kostas;
(2012)
Science Popularization, Hegemonic Ideology and Commercialized Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001320187/)
Article
Hochadel, Oliver;
(2013)
A Boom of Bones and Books: The “Popularization Industry” of Atapuerca and Human-Origins Research in Contemporary Spain
(/isis/citation/CBB001320415/)
Article
Christensen, Lars Lindberg;
Russo, Pedro;
(2007)
Communicating Astronomy with the Public
(/isis/citation/CBB001000307/)
Book
Rome, Adam;
(2013)
The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation
(/isis/citation/CBB001420353/)
Book
Charles Seife;
(2021)
Hawking Hawking: The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity
(/isis/citation/CBB215185925/)
Article
Wittkower, D. E.;
Selinger, Evan;
Rush, Lucinda;
(2013)
Public Philosophy of Technology: Motivations, Barriers, and Reforms
(/isis/citation/CBB001201749/)
Thesis
Sonnett, John H.;
(2006)
Representing the Earth: Global Climate Issues in Popular, Political, Scientific, Business, Industry, and Environmentalist News: A New Old Sociology of Knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB001560796/)
Article
Torres-Albero, Cristóbal;
Fernández-Esquinas, Manuel;
Rey-Rocha, Jesús;
Martín-Sempere, María José;
(2011)
Dissemination Practices in the Spanish Research System: Scientists Trapped in a Golden Cage
(/isis/citation/CBB001034657/)
Article
Gouyon, Jean-Baptiste;
(2011)
The BBC Natural History Unit: Instituting Natural History Film-making in Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB001036164/)
Article
Tanner, Jakob;
(2009)
Populäre Wissenschaft: Metamorphosen des Wissens im Medium des Films
(/isis/citation/CBB000932716/)
Be the first to comment!