alive and well - Geological Society of Australia

Society UpdateEducation&OutreachIam writing this column on the eve of the 34th IGC to be heldin Brisbane 5–10 August 2012. There will be something in thisconference for everyone, including educators and thoseinterested in community outreach. A number of sessions inthe ‘Geoscience for Society’ theme will see presentations oneducational issues and social applications of geoscience globallyand I look forward to reporting on them in the next TAG. By thetime the next issue arrives in your mailbox the IGC may seem likea distant memory. However, the potential impact the conferencestands to make on the Australian community should not beunderestimated, although a fickle media — distracted as it willbe by the Olympics — can also see many good messages sinkwithout trace.Keeping the media in mind, I encourage all those who attendedthe IGC or who read about it with interest in the media to take thetime to reflect on how the different forms of media portrayedgeoscience during the event and the kind of coverage the IGC as awhole received. Various highlights, such as the public presentationby Professor Iain Stewart, might get better coverage although I aminterested to see what types of messages from deep within theconference get coverage and how well that coverage portrays thescience.Public support for science is crucial. Unless there is clearand vocal support from a broad cross-section of the community,incumbent and would-be politicians and the governmentsthey form may not support a real community need, such as theunequivocal funding and support of science, as much as mightotherwise be expected. In today’s world that public support iscommunicated through mainstream media mechanisms such asnewspapers, talk-back radio and Q&A-style television programs,although the impact of social media is ever-growing. It is temptingfor communities such as ours — the community of geoscienceprofessionals — which is populated to a great extent by an agingdemographic, to ignore these newer technologies, treating themas a passing fad. We do so at our peril.It is therefore incumbent on all of us, not just the media teamsemployed by professional societies, universities and industry, toensure the public gets the message: geoscience counts and withoutit our modern world would be an economically, socially andphysically poorer place. Saying this is easy — doing it is whatcounts, but is by no means easy. You should write to local andnational newspapers, call talk-back radio and put yourself forwardto be part of a Q&A-style TV audience if the opportunity arises.Also embrace the new media — not just during and immediatelyafter the IGC.We all know modern media has ashort attention span. Even the mostfantastic of stories to come out of theIGC will have a short run and mighteasily be passed over if other events,judged to be even more interesting, take the headlines at just thewrong moment. Herein lies the power of the new social mediaphenomenon. All of us can comment on the news, not just reador listen to it. It is also now evident that as the more traditionalforms of media seek to build new audiences within youngerdemographics and also cut costs by moving to more digital formsof delivery that they are sourcing news, commentary and ideas forfurther inquiry from social media of all kinds. This means thatwe can start to co-direct the content and mood of the mediacommentary but only if we participate.Consequently, as you read this some weeks after the IGCis done and dusted, I urge you to review how your IGC, yourgeoscience and your areas of interest were reported in all forms ofmedia and think about how you could engage with the new ageof 24/7 media and commentary. What ways could you keep yourgeoscience and areas of interest in the present with positive musthavemessages that will trickle out into multiple blogs, twitterfeeds and online media reports? We all know the importance ofwhat we do for the community at large. What we now also knowis that unless that community knows what we know, the chancesof the geosciences thriving in a world competing 24/7 for funding,government support and research facilities are limited. Thanks tothe social media revolution we now all have an opportunity toinfluence the direction society moves.GREG McNAMARAGeoscience Education and Outreach ServicesExecutive Officer of TESEPSend all comments to Greg McNamara atoutreach@gsa.org.au16 |TAG September 2012