Ilanit Zada
Science and Technology in NYC
Professor Adams
11-17-13
What are the different ways that science is communicated to the public? How is science communicated to you? Well, there are several ways in which science is communicated to each individual; it may be through the media (TV and the internet) or in school settings (considered a more formal setting). However, in the article entitled “Framing Science” by Mattew C. Nisbet and Chris Mooney, I felt that there was a very valid point made. The authors stated that, “citizens use their value predispositions (such as political or religious beliefs) as perceptual screens, selecting new outlets and Web sites whose outlooks match their own.” I felt that this sentence held a lot of truth and brought me back to my experience in school before I entered college.
I went to a Jewish school my entire life (up until college). We took science classes, as would be expected in any other school. However, when we reached the chapter discussing the Big Bang Theory, there wasn’t a heavy emphasis placed on the chapter. We learned about the topic and then moved on. The reason behind that is because as Jews, we believe in G-d and we strongly believe that he is the one who created the universe. The idea that the world we live in came about through a collision of particles went against our religious beliefs and therefore was unfathomable for us. On the other hand, someone that believes in the Big Bang Theory may find what the teacher says about the topic to be rather interesting. They may go on to pursue the topic and learn more about it, whereas for most Jews, their understanding of the topic ends in the classroom. This scenario highlights the idea portrayed in the reading when stating that individuals seek ideas in science that have ideas matching their own. If the idea is similar to what they believe, they will continue to read and learn about it, but if not, they probably will not dwell on the subject and move on to read about something that falls in line with what they believe in.
