Academy of Social Sciences in Australia

Expert Working Group on Science and the Media

A submission to the Expert Working Group on Science and the Media

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31 August 2010

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is pleased to submit the following comments to the Expert Working Group on Science and the Media. ASSA welcomes the initiative to expand and enhance the engagement by Australians with the sciences, broadly defined, and is encouraged by the steps taken to design and implement Inspiring Australia: A national strategy for engagement with the sciences.

ASSA welcomes the recognition in the Inspiring Australia report that the term 'science' includes the social sciences1 , acknowledging that the "the social sciences are considered essential for problem solving in a societal context" and therefore their knowledge and methodologies are crucial in themselves as well as for understanding of communications and opinion forming in society. The social sciences contribute both in the production of original knowledge, with the potential of improving the wellbeing of individuals and their society, and as enabling research disciplines.

ASSA notes in the context of this Expert Working Group's focus on science in the media, that journalists and reporters often have training in the social sciences, but that problems have arisen in the reporting of the research findings of social sciences researchers. Problems have included in particular a lack of differentiation between research based reports, and opinion and commentary potentially politicising the research. ASSA supports any initiatives which, by addressing such problems, aim to increase the accessibility of trustworthy, non-partisan research findings.

ASSA is pleased to make the following comments in support of a strategy which will allow all Australians to more fully engage with research findings, including from the social sciences.

  1. ASSA acknowledges the important research conducted by researchers in universities and also other publicly funded organisations. Significant research is also conducted by, or at the behest of, Australian governments and statutory organisations. ASSA supports the principle of transparency which is the essential precondition of any strategy for the responsible communication of research findings to Australians. To ensure transparency, ASSA supports measures which act to maximise the availability of the findings of publicly-funded research to others in the research sector, to the media, and to Australian public. Much of the onus for doing this lies with the research community and the research institutions. However, in terms of government commissioned research, ASSA supports the development and implementation of processes and protocols which provide clear guidelines for governments and government agencies regarding the public availability of the research they conduct or commission. ASSA would be happy, through the expertise of its Fellowship, to assist in the development of any proceeses or protocols aimed at strengthening and increasing the transparency of publicly funded research findings especially in the social sciences.
  2. ASSA supports the development of capabilities in the media sector to more effectively identify and understand the knowledge produced by Australia's research workforce. This would assist those organisations to fulfill their crucial function of responsibly and accurately making research findings accessible to all Australians. ASSA is conscious of a recent trend in which Australia's researchers are expected both to freely and fearlessly conduct research whose outcomes enhance the national interest and contribute to Australian's wellbeing, as well as then taking responsibility for 'selling' their findings. ASSA is concerned at the long-term implications this may have for the conduct of research whose validity is necessarily underlain by its independence. Accordingly ASSA is supportive of measures which aim to increase the capacity of Australia's research and media workforces to interact meaningfully and productively. Such measures might include:
    • Research internships and introductory research training for media workers, and programs which develop media workers' capacity to access and assimilate the necessary complexities which characterise leading edge research findings; and
    • Programs, including media training, which assist researchers to understand the necessary means by which their findings can be made more broadly accessible, including to journalists, reporters and others.
  3. ASSA supports research funding mechanisms that will assist researchers and their institutions to 'build in' to their research and its outputs features which facilitate access to, and understanding of those findings. ASSA supports the inclusion of funding for dissemination of research findings in research grants provided by funding agencies such as the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council. Providing research organisations with the capacity for measures such as publishing outcomes in multiple formats (including in televisual and web-based formats), and for multiple audiences (such as for younger demographics, or specialist groups such as industry or policy makers) would enhance the capacity of researchers to communicate with both the wider population and targeted groups within it, as well as with the media workers who service them.
  4. ASSA recommends the inclusion of monitoring and evaluative mechanisms as integral components of any strategy for closer engagement with research findings, such as from the social sciences. For a strategy which seeks to engage Australians with research findings so as to integrate them more fully into Australia's innovation economy to be successful in the long term, features which allow the tracking and evaluation of its initiatives against agreed goals and outcomes must be built in, and the resources provided to monitor them. This will allow evaluation of the success of any strategy for engagement with research findings, as well as for the adjustment of any strategy in the event that some measures are less successful than others.
  5. ASSA is aware of proposals for the institution of a keynote forum or forums which engage government, business and the broader community with the findings of Australia's research workforce, highlighting the issues facing Australia which research can help to solve. ASSA supports the provision of resources for such a forum or forums.

Recommendations

The Academy is conscious of the need to improve awareness by policy makers, business leaders, and others within the broader Australian community of Australian research findings, and strongly supports initiatives to that will effect this. ASSA is aware that there are examples of good communication between researchers and the media which have resulted in the dissemination of knowledge which has benefited Australians. The constructive relationship between the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the media sector, and the inherent protocols underpinning it, is an example of how trustworthy information can be disseminated to the community. One important protocol is the separation of information from opinion and commentary. Political opinions can be based on ABS statistics but usually not in a way that the ABS statistics are questioned.

In general however, more needs to be done to ensure that Australian research findings

  • are accessible and readily utilisable by Australians;
  • are transparent, and include information on the basis on which the underlying research was conducted
  • are presented in a non-partisan way; and
  • are trustworthy.

The Academy has been pleased to assist the Working Group by making these comments, and would welcome the opportunity to further contribute to a national strategy for engaging the sciences, including the social sciences.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Academy should you require further clarification of these points or for more information.

Contributors

Emeritus Professor Anne Edwards AO FASSA2 , Chair, ASSA Research Committee

Mr Dennis Trewin AO FASSA, Chair, ASSA Policy & Advocacy Committee with assistance from the Secretariat of the Academy of the Social sciences in Australia.

References

Inspiring Australia: A national strategy for engagement with the sciences, Commonwealth Department of Industry, Innovation, Science and Research: Canberra (2010).

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia is an autonomous, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the various social sciences, and to the representation of Australian social sciences and social scientists. The Academy is recognised by the Australian Government as one of Australia's four Learned Academies, and consists of an elected Fellowship of approximately 500 of Australia's most prominent social science researchers, representing seventeen social science disciplines. ASSA strives to foster excellence in social science research; to encourage the advancement of the social sciences in Australia; to act as a coordinating group for the promotion of research and teaching in the social sciences; to strongly support efforts to encourage and facilitate research collaboration between Australian and overseas researchers; and to consult, advise, and comment where appropriate on national needs and priorities from the perspective of the social sciences.

Footnotes
  1. ASSA recognises the social sciences as encompassing the disciplines of Anthropology, Demography, Geography, Linguistics, Sociology, Management, Accounting, Economic History, Economics, Statistics, History, Law, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Social Medicine, and Education.
  2. FASSA - Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.