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Budget
For communications training pilot course: Environment Canada (EC)
invested $50K (Canadian) plus costs of participants travel. A four-person
organising committee spent a substantial part of their time, over and
above their normal duties, organising the course and producing a final
report. Total amount included translation costs (English to French) and
report production. Cost per participant of subsequent risk communications
training course - delivered by external contractors - is ~$1.2K (Canadian)
per participant.
Abstract
Canadians have an increasing interest in science topics associated with
nature and the environment. Interpreting and communicating scientific
information is vital to Environment Canada (EC)'s mandate. According to
public opinion polling, scientists are EC's most trusted spokespeople.
In the context of a long-standing policy for specialists to be the department's
spokespersons, the Department needed to foster communications skills for
scientists and also develop better links between communicating scientists
and departmental communications staff. In December 1998 we developed a
groundbreaking pilot training course for a dozen up-and-coming scientists
with interest and aptitude for communications. The pilot was particularly
effective in involving communications personnel from across EC so as to
build linkages between the two constituencies. The course was very successful,
produced a suggested curriculum for future courses, and provided a baseline
for the development--by a group of federal science Departments including
EC--of further pilot workshops.
An external Advisory
Board developed a Science Communications Framework for EC, concluding
there was a "need to make popular communications a high priority"
(http://www.ec.gc.ca/scitech/management/communicationframework_e.htm).
There are a number of other diverse "best practices" emerging
across EC. These include various products, using different media, targeted
to both general and specialised audiences. With input from both the science
community and communications specialists, EC has emerged as a leader,
among Canadian federal science Departments, in the science communications
field.
A
Communications Curriculum Toolkit
The
pilot communications-training course involved a dozen EC scientists together
with equal numbers of communications personnel and resource specialists/trainers.
Course elements included:
- A comprehensive
resource binder and draft curriculum
- Media Training
- Mentorship by EC
Communications "Masters," and
- A blue ribband
media panel
Intensive evaluation
of the course allowed us to build a "road map" for future training
sessions, including: various logistic considerations (such as selection
criteria for candidates), guidelines for presenters, course location,
resource materials, etc.
A revised three-day
curriculum included core sessions on:
- The Communications
Environment,
- Science and Communications,
- Science and Media/Panel
Discussion,
- Science and the
Written Media,
- Media Relations
Training
Core sessions were
complemented by auxiliary presentations including:
- Sharing Science
with Communities,
- Communicating Science
to Northern and Aboriginal Communities,
- Marketing the Message:
Who's the Audience?,
- Communicating Science
to Other Cultures and Language Groups, and
- "Lessons from
the Masters."
Our approach—which
included development of an extensive toolkit for future use - provided
a baseline for applying the lessons learned across science departments
(or other science-based institutions) with a goal of fostering collaborative
communications of science. Building on concepts developed by EC, further
pilot courses in "Risk communication media training"--intended
as a basis for a co-ordinated training program--were developed co-operatively
by a group of federal science Departments in early 2001. Furthermore,
EC-Regional staff have been active in helping develop training courses
involving students in the fields of Journalism, Public Relations and Science.
Other
Best Practices
Apart
from the communications training already described, a number of other
best practices have emerged.
These include:
- EC's National Water
Research Institute requires scientists to provide a Research Summary
AND an Abstract with all scientific manuscripts. (The Research Summary
provides a brief summary of the study in a dynamic and public friendly
style and will be used on the NWRI website and elsewhere.)
- EC-Regional staff
are developing a "hot leads" science-story website for use
by journalists.
- EC-Atlantic's Integration
and Interpretation Section is an acknowledged leader nationally in developing
a variety of targeted multi-media and on-line products to better disseminate
science results. (These include innovative and far-from-traditional
methods for making presentations to aboriginal groups (see "The
Ashkui Project" poster by Geoff Howell and Alex T. Bielak.)
At the national level,
Environment Canada's communication and science teams have developed a
family of diverse products to bring science and technology to Canadians.
Many of these are tracked for media pickup resulting from each of them.
They include:
Science
and Environment Bulletin
A bimonthly, 8-page print and on-line publication, brings Environment
Canada's leading-edge science and technology to Canadians and the world
in a topical, fact-driven manner.
EnviroZine
Environment Canada's on-line newsmagazine is produced every three
weeks to give users a reliable and comprehensive place to obtain information
on science and technology subjects. It blends the content of the Green
Lane, the department's Internet presence, in an upbeat and informative
way, with a variety of dynamic elements.
Enviro
Tipsheet
A biweekly series
of 4-5 story ideas, faxed to media across Canada, which also features
4-5 special editions during the year. The content is short, snappy, and
of interest to wide variety of journalists and thus audiences. Spokespersons
for science stories are always specialists and easily accessible.
Planet
Update
The radio cousin of
Tipsheet, it is a monthly audio show of four 60-second stories sent by
satellite, to radio stations across Canada. Popular with a wide demographic
it reaches more than 100 French and English markets.
Inside
Track
A feature of
EnviroZine which groups Enviro Tipsheet, Planet Update and S&E Bulletin
in one place to give journalists the scoop on highlights, audio files
and the latest developments in environmental science and technology, as
well as a way to reach the right people for interviews.
Environment Canada
has also produced a Science and Technology (S&T) web page dedicated
to sharing information on the Department's S&T, and policies and approaches
used to manage S&T.
The Department is also working closely with other natural resource Departments
as part of a communications working group to develop and implement a plan
to deepen Canadians understanding of federal research (http://www.durable.gc.ca/index_e.phtml).
EarthTones
A 20-part series of 6-9 minutes television "vignettes", showcasing
federal government science activities and broadcast on the prestigious
daily science magazine show, @Discovery.ca. on The Discovery Channel (the
Canadian version).
Acknowledgements
The authors
wish to thank Todd Smith of the Interpretation and Integration Section,
Ecosystem Science Division of Atlantic Region's Environmental Conservation
Branch for ever-cheerful assistance in producing the poster and materials
for distribution. They also wish to thank Jon Stone, EC-Atlantic Communications,
for useful insights and input.
Authors
Alex T.
Bielak, with Geoff Howell, Philip Enros, and Paul Hempel.
Contact
Dr.
Alex T. Bielak
Environment Canada,
National Water Research Institute,
867 Lakeshore Road, P.O. Box 5050,
Burlington, Ontario L7R 4A6 Canada
Phone: (905) 336-4503
Email: alex.bielak@ec.gc.ca
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Created: 3/28/02
Last updated: 8/17/02
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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