Annual Public Lecture Series
Metcalf Institute organizes a five-day annual public lecture series, Scientists and Journalists: Getting the Point Across, that coincides with the Annual Workshop for Journalists. Each year, nationally known journalists, scientists, and policy experts speak about current issues in science research, media coverage, and how science influences public policy. The lectures are held at the URI Narragansett Bay Campus in the Coastal Institute Auditorium, Narragansett, Rhode Island.
News Executives Roundtable: Covering Climate Change
Building on our previous Science Communication and the News Media Workshops, Metcalf Institute partnered with the Society of Environmental Journalists in September 2007 to co-organize a one day workshop for eighteen top news executives. Leading climate scientists and economists presented the latest research on climate change science, biological and economic impacts, and potential solutions, in an engaging program that gave some of journalism's "gatekeepers" a crash course in one of the most important issues facing us today. The roundtable was sponsored by The Energy Foundation, the Heinz Family Philanthropies, Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, and the Yale University Project on Climate Change.
Science Communication and the News Media Workshops
Journalists and scientists recognize that they share the burden for providing the public with responsible science-based information. These National Science Foundation workshops -- and the final report on science communications and the mass media that will be developed from them -- explore innovative ways to explain science to the public through the media.
Public Speaking Events
October 29, 2007
chinadialogue.net: Creating an Environmental Dialogue Across the Firewall
Isabel Hilton, chinadialogue.net
October 18, 2005
Smoke and Haze on the Science Beat
Charles Petit, U.S. News & World Report
October 19, 2005
National Parks and Science: Convergence in the Twenty-First Century
Dr. Michael Soukup, National Park Service
September 19, 2004
The Environment in American Politics and Who Cares?
Roger Kennedy, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
February 5, 2004
The Beast in the Garden: Wildlife in America's Suburbs
David Baron, Journalist and Author
October 27, 2003
Marine Fisheries: Global Trends and Ecosystem Impacts
Dr. Daniel Pauly, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia
October 28, 2001
Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: How Computers Can Help Us Become "Ecological Thinkers"
Dr. Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Laboratory
February 25, 2001
Environmental Policy: Will Bush Dismantle What Clinton Built?
Robert B. Semple, Jr., The New York Times
National Park Service Media Workshop
Extensive research is conducted on U.S. national parks that influences natural resource management decision-making and knowledge of park ecosystems. Public understanding of the science that affects park management is crucial for public support of the national parks. In October 2005, National Park Service (NPS) staff members met with journalists, scientists and public relations specialists at the Metcalf workshop, Science and the Media: Communicating Natural Resource Issues to the Press, to gain skills in communicating science information and working effectively with the news media.
Science Seminars for News Editors
In 2003 and 2004, Metcalf Institute and The Providence Journal sponsored
two Science Seminars for News Editors, "Science Beyond Politics" and "Environment Beyond Politics." These day-and-a-half seminars for news editors and editorial writers addressed the difficulty of covering complex science-based news and looked at complex environmental issues in New England.
Annual Public Lecture Series