DAY 1 of WORKSHOP completed - summaries posted below.

SUMMARY OF SPEAKERS AND THEIR PRESENTATIONS.

It is important to note that we will be streaming all the presentations and you will be able to download them from our web site - http://communication.chass.ncsu.edu/nirt/Home.html.

This was a webcasted workshop. We had people speaking from our site on the campus of NCSU in Raleigh and we had people giving presentations from all over the USA (from Las Vegas, Nevada to New Haven, Connecticut. We had some minor problems but, by and large, it worked and we will post here (soon) a summary of the technical challenges so others can learn from our efforts.

WHAT FOLLOWS is a summary of the presentations.

WORKSHOP

DAY 1

LENNART SJOBERG from Stockholm School of Economics opened the session.
He studies public risk perception of technology (nuclear waste, food, genetically modified food, and nanotechnology). He discussed the roles novelty and dread play in risk variances between expert and public risk determinations. He claims dread trumps novelty in explaining variance. Dread is viewed emotively. Dread involves severity of consequences rather than the emotional items. Generally, dread is related with interfering with nature. He claims social trust = authoritative trust has little relationship with risk determination by publics (0.3 or less). He claims epistemic trust = trust in science is much more relevant. He discussed risk sensitivity – what makes some people more risk sensitive than others and antagonism as a variable. He adds new risks may bring about new aspects that require new variables. He discussed risk targets – people defer to general risk rather than individual risk is assessing rankings. He covered probability neglect and noted affect trumps data on social trust. He warned the instruction in many surveys complicated findings since affect data of dread are affected by whether one internalizes or externalizes dread. He noted substantive experts had similar structure of risk perception as the public which was different from the original work on general experts. These concepts make it important for us to check material on variance assoc. with public and expert risks when examined personally. He added ratings between gender/sexes minimal. He validated effect on social interaction and validation on risk rankings.

SUSANNA PRIEST from UNLV spoke from Las Vegas using video conferencing software.

She claims attitudes toward stem cells are a function primarily in the belief associated with the moral status of the embryo – an ethical risk. She argues risks are not the same and questions: What kind of risks? Do they think narrowly of harm? are very important. She adds we need work on justice issues and distributional variables.

ROB GOBLE from Clark University appeared live.

The bulk of his presentation was associated with importance of contextualization. He challenged us to find a way of defining a hazard when there is so much uncertainty. [We expect more work soon on horizon mapping - Scheufele and I are developing hypotheses in this area]. He added a discussion of banding = recharacterization or reframing the problem as a possible route.

DAN KAHAN from Yale appeared electronically.

His presentation was on public reactions and what risk communicators can do. He discussion the cultural cognition hypothesis and noted biased assimilation/cultural polarization leads the public to attend in a biased ways. He covered cultural credibility heuristics – (trust experts) – generally, the expert individuals will trust are experts individuals perceive share cultural worldview. He covered framing whereby the same general information with a different lead in a newspaper article framing the salience of a specific application impacts perception (framing by lead). He discussed snap intuitive judgment of risk sensitives populations versus risk skepticals and noted the divide widens as they seek out the views. He then connected this finding to some advocacy groups (NGOs) who arouse views by exposure to information to reinforce their predispositions toward nanotechnology resulting in deep-seated resentment such as occurred with nuclear power. He claimed we can manage and counter-act polarization and create an environment open-minded to the best information. He wants a deliberative environment and noted PEN/CCP will release full results of the framing experiments discussed above.

BREAK

DIETRAM SCHEUFELE from the University of Wisconsin appeared live.

He referenced dependent perceptions and discussed framing effects which are extremely strong for ambiguous stimulants. He noted optimistic framing effects w/o understanding the technology. He discussed perceptual filters that shape interpretations (processing) such things as culture, religious beliefs, moral schema. He added a review of the PEW MEDIA study out about 2 weeks ago. One category, the Net-newsers, suggest a shift from traditional news sources on digital media. He speculated on the implications for attenuation and amplification data sets associated with traditionalists. He noted we need to narrow communication gaps in science between population rather than continuing to preach to the choir. He responded to the “marketing of science” indictment. Ethics of marketing science and technology is something that needs to be further investigated.

JOHN STONE from Michigan State appeared live and lively.

He presented a review of his NIRT and addressed how information needed to be pulled-up to policy makers as well as pushed-out to publics. He is using the extension service as a way to move local knowledge up the stream. This project is a good contact for the last phase of the NIRT when we complete focus groups on food and nanotechnology.

MARTIN CLAUBERG from Tennessee appeared via Skype Meeting software.

He discussed a meta-analysis of research on risk. This was an EC Project and everyone is encouraged to check the final report. He discussed a lot of data and the slides/power points will appear on our site and you should go there in a week or so to read them. He noted uncertainty is generated by multiple views by different representatives.

VICKI COLVIN from Rice was live and presented here rather than Friday morning so she could get back to Texas ahead of the hurricane. She covered the unique properties of nanoparticles - magnetic, chemical and optics and called for proactive risk research is associated with horizon scanning. This may involve risk forecasting much like what is used a meteorology.

DAY TWO REPORT FORTHCOMING as well as a technical review of the webcasting experiment.