Reviews for Culturally Speaking Second Edition

The average rating for Culturally Speaking Second Edition based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-19 00:00:00 Amy Millman This book can best be construed as a collection of ideas and tips for science communication within a variety of contexts and it's not without its usefulness. In fact, scientists who want to begin communicating more effectively with the public directly (or indirectly, mediated perhaps by journalists or press officers) will benefit greatly from its advice. It is not, however, a comprehensive guide to any of the various forms of communication discussed. For example, a chapter on video production gives a rough break-down of the process of producing video content (pre-production through post-production) and gives the would-be director plenty to think about in terms of planning such a project. The chapter does not, however, provide any useful advice on the technical details of video production. It's fair enough to say that's beyond the scope of this book, but it's worth knowing in advance that you're getting tips to help you make sure you think of everything, not a step-by-step guide to actualizing those tips. For my money, the book's greatest success is that it presents its information effectively, condensing many topics into simple tables or checklists, and is attractively illustrated throughout. Its greatest shortcoming, on the other hand, is that it offers little practical advice on what I consider the most important part of science communication: the creative act of condensing technical information into information that appeals to a wide audience without condescension. It's well enough, for example, to state that "the main text [of a press release] should be written in a short, concise style using the active voice," but the neophyte science communicator would benefit greatly from side-by-side comparisons of effective and ineffective press releases along with detailed explanations of how the effective writings were constructed and why the authors made the creative choices they made. Therein lies my difficulty in giving this book a strong recommendation. While its advice absolutely is sound and certainly is valuable (a couple of outdated pages on Internet-based communication aside), the experienced communicator will likely find the vast majority of the book's contents to be self-evident, while the beginner, though perhaps inspired by the book's ideas and educated by its advice, is likely to flounder while trying to figure out how to translate the book's content into actionable projects. As such, I do recommend this book, but only in conjunction with other texts that provide more detail on the creative and technical aspects of the reader's chosen mode(s) of communication.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-02 00:00:00 Marcello Piz The reason I read this book was to get some insights into practicing Science Communication. It was less than I expected, filled with technical guidelines on producing colored images. However, the writer collected some of the top tips from science journalism experts and researchers in the field of SciComm. What I really felt about this book was that it's outdated. For the last 13 years, after the publishing of this book, everything in communicating science to the public has changed, the methods, the technologies, and the practitioners. I'll try to find another book about the practice of public outreach.