Thesis ID: CBB001560709

The Cinematic Turn in Public Discussions of Science (2005)

unapi

Von Burg, Ron (Author)


University of Pittsburgh
Mitchell, Gordon


Publication Date: 2005
Edition Details: Advisor: Mitchell, Gordon
Physical Details: 207 pp.
Language: English

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.

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Description 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.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001560709/

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Authors & Contributors
Babaii, Esmat
Asadnia, Fatemeh
Domaradzki, Jan
Lusito, Fabio
Wittkower, D. E.
Torres-Albero, Cristóbal
Concepts
Communication of scientific ideas
Popularization
Popular culture
Public understanding of science
Motion pictures; cinema; movies
Science and society
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
Places
Spain
Great Britain
Italy
China
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