In each Colloquium, we emphasize that the policy process, especially here in the United States, is shaped by the reality that it occurs in a goldfish bowl, under the constant, pervasive scrutiny of the press, a press that now takes a large variety of forms: traditional journalism, radio, television, blogs, social media, and more… in the 21st century, we are all reporters.
Colloquium participants are just coming off two half-day sessions on the media – this year, developed not by AMS staff but by our AGU partners for 2011. In alphabetical order, Joan Buhrman, Kaitlin Chell, Liz Landau and Peter Weiss of AGU put together a stellar package of interactive exercises and two remarkable panels to introduce participants to the communication dimension of the policy process. Yesterday participants heard from Sarah L. DeWitt, NASA Office of the Chief Scientist, Lauren Morello of ClimateWire, Brian Vastag of the Washington Post, and Karen Wayland of the Nature Conservancy. Today participants dialoged with bloggers Callan Bentley (Mountain Beltway, one of several blogs on the AGU blogosphere) and Jason Samenow (the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang). Bentley and Samenow demonstrated the synergies between blogging and social networking on Twitter and Facebook.
Participants were then encouraged to draft their sample tweets (140 characters or less), on topics of their choosing (ranging from their work to their time at the Colloquium). Here are their fledgling tweets (which do not necessarily represent the views of this blog, or the grammar of this blog, or the spelling of this blog):
Learning how to talk & tweet science at the AMS Policy Colloquium.
Yesterday we collected a hi-res hail dataset to verify the new dual-pol radar in SW KS
Dear senators pls save our economy vote down S2877 & HR2380
Geeking out with other weather nerds at the AMS summer policy colloquium
Always keep an open mind! Belief in global warming must not be shaped by your political ideology
Learning journalistic techniques for enhancing communication of science at the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium! @AMS
Half way done to becoming an AMS 2011 summer colloquium alum!
Government needs to pass a FY12 budget that supports science and research
When is the last time the weather changed your day? Where? How?
At the AMS summer policy colloquium learning about how to communicate my Lisbon air pollution research!
With a bunch of weather geeks inside for a whole day while outside DC hits record highs…
Learning a lot at the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium #headspinning
Today is hot and polluted @ DC…Please remain inside and have a beer or maybe two
101F outside in DC right now, but it’s cold inside!
Hot in the East, Cool in the West, and wet in the Middle. Goooooo Weather!
The session organizers were impressed… “They’re naturals,” said one.
As discussed back on October 12, and revisited on March 10 and again on May 17, colloquy is better than soliloquy…now if one or more of these folks will just submit a guest post…or start blogging on their own…