The special event “The media tell the climate” organized in the framework of first SISC annual conference will take place in Lecce at Castle of Carlo V (Maria D’Enghien Room) on September 23rd at 6pm.

What is public perception of climate research in Italy? What people really know about results in scientific publications? How many people are aware of the implications and advantages in everyday life due to knowledge produced by the climate research community? How many know how this scientific knowledge can influence future policy and socio-economic choices? In which way are media reporting on climate change research, a complex, important (even outside the scientific community) and controversial issue, often characterized by opposite interests and polarized opinions?

In the face of these questions, scientists have to address a new challenge, that is to say to speak to the general public while enlarging their audience from their colleagues to a broader public sphere. Thus, this means to try to speak with an heterogeneous and wide audience, or to learn to communicate with “the brokers” (call them journalists, communication experts, or as you like it), that is to say with people able to translate research work in a language comprehensible but not simpler, to develop a complete, clear and exhaustive tale of climate science.

The climate tale will be the focus of a conversation during which experts and journalists will illustrate how the Italian public opinion perceive the science and its results, with a special focus on climate change research.

A debate will come from their points of view, especially from media perspectives and experiences and from media coverage of science on TV, on the radio, in the newspapers, in the Internet or in the social networks. With the aid of scientists, we’ll try to understand how and where different experiences, expertises and professions can meet and merge to tell climate science.

Journalists and media expert:

Luca Mercalli, Società Meteorologica Italiana
Giuseppe Pellegrini, Università di Padova/Observa Science in Society
Silvia Bencivelli, Giornalista scientifica free lance
Luca Carra, Scienzainrete.it
Marco Cattaneo, Le Scienze
Elisabetta Tola, Formicablu/datajournalism.it