Scientific Frames Research Articles

Framing science: the Endangered Species Act and the Scientization of Politics

ABSTRACT Science is a potent policymaking tool. This dynamic has been exacerbated by evidence-based policymaking, which requires that policymaking participants utilize scientific claims in their engagement to combat issues of uncertainty and ignorance. However, there is little understanding of how participants in EBPM interpret and deploy the science relevant to policies. Thus, this paper asks: how do evidence-based policymaking participants frame science? To identify scientific frames, I deployed structural topic modelling on 500,000 comments submitted by EBPM participants with regards to the Endangered Species Act, a powerful environmental law that is structured by EBPM requirements. Analyses find a diversity of scientific frames in ESA public comments, which have distinct styles and forms based on the types of commenters deploying them. These framings coalesce not only around scientific claims relevant to policymaking, but also varied understandings of legitimate forms of science. This indicates that science is a powerful framing resource that is adapted to meet contextual policymaking demands, interpreted to match actors’ interests, and intertwined with other framing resources, like moral, risk, or narrative claims. This paper thus identifies important dynamics regarding different actors’ responses to policymaking under uncertain conditions and poses fundamental questions of science’s use in policymaking.

Raising Climate Change Awareness Across Twitter

This study has focused on the effective media, organizations, celebrities, politicians, and ordinary people that are interested in climate change across Twitter. A quantitative content analysis based on the cross-sectional analysis method was performed to assess (1,277,833) tweets from 21st Nov to 10th Dec 2016, which was close to the implementation of Paris Agreement on 4th Nov 2016. The study concluded that positive sentiments and attitudes were dominant compared to negatives, particularly toward media and scientific frames. However, neutral frames formed the biggest frame. This study recommends the unification of the efforts and the declaration of clear views and practical actions by all bodies such as scientists, celebrities, politicians, ordinary people, media, organizations including scientific institutions and centers to construct common knowledge, and evidence through variety ways so as to achieve the highest rate of raising awareness among people worldwide.

Improving community health message reception through digital journalistic practices: Mixed-method evidence on health preventive behaviors and health podcast framing for emerging health issues

Health issues stemming from the public’s lack of access to scientific and health information prompted mounting concerns about public health responses. A growing amount of digital journalism scholarship has indicated the relevance of podcasts in health communication through reaching and engaging audiences in more significant preventive behaviors. Integrating digital journalistic practices in health podcasts as a practical and low-cost communication strategy can augment public adherence to addressing widespread health issues. However, the role of health podcasts in media framing in promoting preventive health behaviors is largely unknown. This study used a mixed-method approach (e.g., content analysis and quasi-experiments) to uncover the effectiveness of health podcasts’ framing practices (scientific vs. health frames). The content analysis results demonstrated that the health podcasts mainly used carrier and normal frames, while problem definitions and treatment were leading scientific frames. In a series of quasi-experiments comprising 640 respondents from the UAE and Pakistan, this research manipulated eight frames employed in health podcasts (i.e., two leading sub-frames for each scientific and health frame) to examine the causal mechanism that affects preventive health behaviors (hereafter PB). The findings established that the message-consistent effects of media frames manifesting scientific evidence and health orientation made audiences adopt PB. Theoretically, this research addresses the call for a more comprehensive “community digital journalistic practices model,” further delivering novel evidence on the health podcast framing approaches to offer more eloquent community health campaigns to raise public health issues.

Violent silence: framing out social causes of climate-related crises

ABSTRACT Climate change is a problem of unimaginable scope and magnitude – in cause, implication and responsibility. Predominant and ostensibly scientific frames for evaluating climate-related loss and damage focus on the climate events as the primary cause. This approach clouds out and silences the many non-climatic, social and political-economic, causes of crises. Framing the social back in highlights a fuller range of causes and potential solutions. It is also contentious as it locates cause in decisions, policies and institutions – indicating responsibility and blame. Choosing a social and political-economic analytic has implications for action and ethics as it broadens response abilities and responsibility.

The problem of translating the term between Arabic and English

This paper studies the Theories of Translation and in particular Idiomatic Translation. This humble research also studies the threads that a translator must weave together so as to realize a readable and a comprehensible translated text. A translator, therefore, must translate the text/idiom from the source language (SL) into the target language (TL) preserving fidelity to both languages. This paper also discusses the main points that cause a target text (TT) to be weak, along with the methods that must be followed and applied to make it as efficient as the source text (ST). The problem of translating idioms was also discussed within sociological, social and scientific frames and contexts, alongside its reasons and suggested solutions.

The problem of translating the term between Arabic and English

This paper studies the Theories of Translation and in particular Idiomatic Translation. This humble research also studies the threads that a translator must weave together so as to realize a readable and comprehensible translated text. A translator, therefore, must translate the text/idiom from the source language (SL) into the target language (TL) preserving fidelity to both languages. This paper also discusses the main points that cause a target text (TT) to be weak, along with the methods that must be followed and applied to make it as efficient as the source text (ST). The problem of translating idioms was also discussed within sociological, social, and scientific frames and contexts, alongside its reasons and suggested solutions

العلاقات العامة في المنظور الإسلامي رؤية تأصيلية


 Public relations is a concept initiated in an early era of human genesis, it developed gradually until it occupies its own institutions; eventually, a number of theories and scientific frames were based on. The researcher has used the descriptive method, as it suits his thesis, to figure out the origin of the problem and presented specific solutions to such defects and shortcomings. The research authenticates the aspect of public relations in Holy Quran and Alsunnah and found that Islam cares enormously of individual's behavior as honesty, integrity, preserving oath and avoiding deception, those virtues are essential segments of public relations which Islam wants to prevail in different beliefs and cultures.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Health and Scientific Frames in Online Communication of Tick-Borne Encephalitis: Antecedents of Frame Recognition

In a period characterized by vaccine hesitancy and even vaccine refusal, the way online information on vaccination is presented might affect the recipients’ opinions and attitudes. While research has focused more on vaccinations against measles or influenza, and described how the framing approach can be applied to vaccination, this is not the case with tick-borne encephalitis, a potentially fatal infection induced by tick bites. This study takes one step back and seeks to investigate whether health and scientific frames in online communication are even recognized by the public. Moreover, the influence of selected health- and vaccine-related constructs on the recognition of frames is examined. Study results indicate that health frames are the most easily identified and that their use might be a fruitful strategy when raising awareness of health topics such as vaccination.

New wavelength calibration for echelle spectrographs using Fabry-Pérot etalons

Context. The study of Earth-mass extrasolar planets via the radial-velocity technique and the measurement of the potential cosmological variability of fundamental constants call for very-high-precision spectroscopy at the level of δλ/λ < 10−9. Only an accurate wavelength calibration of the spectrograph can guarantee that the aimed precision is achieved over a multi-exposure and multi-epoch data set. Wavelength accuracy is obtained by providing two fundamental ingredients: 1) an absolute and information-rich wavelength source and 2) the ability of the spectrograph and its data reduction of transferring the reference scale (wavelengths) to a measurement scale (detector pixels) in a repeatable manner. Aims. The goal of this work is to improve the wavelength calibration accuracy of the HARPS spectrograph by combining the absolute spectral reference provided by the emission lines of a thorium-argon hollow-cathode lamp (HCL) with the spectrally rich and precise spectral information of a Fabry-Pérot-based calibration source. Methods. On the basis of calibration frames acquired each night since the Fabry-Pérot etalon was installed on HARPS in 2011, we constructed a combined wavelength solution that fits simultaneously the thorium emission lines and the Fabry-Pérot lines. The combined fit was anchored to the absolute thorium wavelengths, which provide the “zero-point” of the spectrograph, while the Fabry-Pérot lines were used to improve the (spectrally) local precision. The obtained wavelength solution was verified for auto-consistency and tested against a solution obtained using the HARPS laser-frequency comb (LFC). Results. The combined thorium+Fabry-Pérot wavelength solution shows significantly better performances compared to the thorium-only calibration. In both cases, the residuals of the LFC line positions to the fitted wavelength solution follow a Gaussian distribution with an rms value of about 14 m s−1 for the combined solution, and twice as large for the thorium-only solution (29 m s−1). Given these positive results, we have applied the new calibrations to scientific frames and tested the radial-velocity residual on three well-known stars: HD 10700, HD 20794, and HD 69830. In all three cases the radial-velocity (RV) scatter could be reduced compared to the measurements using the previous calibration. Conclusions. The richness of the Fabry-Pérot spectrum helps to improve the wavelength calibration using thorium-argon lamps or extending the wavelength domain of LFCs with limited operational range. The presented techniques will therefore be used in the new HARPS and HARPS-N pipeline, and will be exported to the ESPRESSO spectrograph.

Review of: „Miłość i ekonomia w literackich biografiach kobiet” [eng. Love and economy in literary biographies of women] by Katarzyna Szmulewicz, Warsaw: Instytut Badań Literackich PAN, 2017. Pp. 206.

The attempt to present in scientific frames literary biographies of women, undertaken by Katarzyna Szumlewicz, is bound to be well received both by literary researchers and critics as well as teachers.

Between Science and Supernaturalism: Mimesis and the Uncanny in Nineteenth-Century Theatre and Culture

Curiously placed between the realms of science and supernaturalism, the phenomenon of the uncanny double has a distinctive presence in both. Another kind of duality is at issue in the imagined presence of the doppelganger, as a figure in both physical and mental life. While the phenomenon of the Brocken spectre is one of the era’s most resonant manifestations of an uncanny mirroring of the body, later nineteenth-century developments in clinical psychology began to focus on the sense of an alien presence residing in unknown reaches of the human brain. As they did so, these clinical experiments involved an engagement with the interweave of mental and physiological expression. In Nicholas Royle’s words, the uncanny is associated with ‘a flickering sense (but not conviction) of something supernatural’. Somewhere between the conviction afforded by cognitive processes and the flickering sense intimated by the live wiring of the nervous system, new dimensions of reading and interpretation were opened up. My concern here is to explore how the overlay of scientific and supernaturalist frames is managed in some of the more influential literary and dramatic portrayals of uncanny mimesis. These include evocations of the doppelganger in works by Thomas De Quincey, James Hogg, and Walter Scott, and in Henry Irving’s theatrical productions. Irving’s interest in the double consciousness of the actor is discussed in relation to psychological theories of dual consciousness, and their exploration in clinical practice with patients diagnosed as hysteric.

The Risk Takers: The Support Faculty Participants in Integration Initiatives Say They Really Need

This qualitative study reports the concerns of faculty in three pre-professional programs of one food science department as they integrate communication competencies into their classes. The study found that faculty viewed communication activities through the lenses of their disciplinary traditions, applying scientific frames of reference to communication activities. Two areas of concern that emerged are: first, faculty were challenged by logistical issues such as development assessment instruments and assignments; second the risks they took by teaching an area outside of their disciplinary expertise caused them anxieties. Agents of integration and other participants must be cognizant of the disciplinary frames of reference influencing faculty decisions during integration efforts. This study focused on self-reports from faculty regarding the challenges they experienced (rather than disciplinary content issues) while integrating communication activities into their classes; consequently the results and recommendations are generalizable to integration efforts in other discplines.

What do scientists say on climate change? A study of Indonesian newspapers

Scientists predict that Indonesia is likely to be one of the regions most affected by climate change. Although there are pressing concerns for the effects on Indonesia's biodiversity, the consequences of climate change are predicted to reach beyond the natural environment. Agriculture, industry, the health sector, politics and the social-economic sector, among others, are all likely to be impacted significantly by climate change in the coming years. The underlying theoretical assumption of the study is that it is of vital importance to know how the climate question has been understood and framed to assess how the general public will respond to lifestyle changes necessary for climate protection. This study examines the media coverage of climate change over one year in the Indonesian media, specifically the newspapers Kompas and Media Indonesia. Using a quantitative analysis as its central methodology, the study adopts two core frames to analyse all articles on climate change. The study found that the environmental and scientific frames were the dominant ones for news accounts of issue and that the scientific and governmental frames were the most prominent ones for individuals or organisations concerned with climate change issues. This study also found that the media tend to frame climate change news primarily for an Indonesian context.

The fear of simulation: Scientific authority in late 19th-century French disputes over hypnotism

This article interrogates the way/s in which rival schools studying hypnotism in late 19th-century France framed what counts as valid evidence for the purposes of science. Concern over the scientific reality of results is particularly situated in the notion of simulation (the faking of results); the respective approaches to simulation of the Salpêtrière and Nancy schools are analysed through close reading of key texts: Binet and Féré for the Salpêtrière, and Bernheim for Nancy. The article reveals a striking divergence between their scientific frames, which helps account for the bitterness of the schools’ disputes. It then explores Bernheim’s construction of scientific authority in more detail, for insights into the messiness entailed by theorizing hypnotism in psychical terms, while also attempting to retain scientific legitimacy. Indicative of this messiness, it is argued, is the way in which Bernheim’s (apparently inconsistent) approach draws on multiple epistemic frames.

Community health workers as critical building blocks to strengthen health systems: a two-case study of innovative CHWs in Zambia and Japan

Background: This work focuses on assessing the role of professional community health workers (CHWs) in strengthening the health system.Methods: This cross-national case study draws from two different sources, a program in Zambia and a program in Japan. For both programs, we examine CHWs, who were trained in education and health, as the link between community and health systems to explore issues related to identification and to task.Results: We conclude that there is a need to reconsider the conventional scientific and bureaucratic frames that CHWs have to navigate. Further, we identify the potential for professional community members to take on various tasks of CHWs and the subsequent necessities and opportunities for building competence in communicating with and representing community. Finally, we present the perceived challenges facing CHWs in terms of community governance as well as their contributions to strengthening the health systems in their areas.

Moral Frames and Climate Change Policy Attitudes*

ObjectiveThis article compares the effects of various climate change issue frames (deontological‐moral, empirical‐scientific, and economic) on support for climate change mitigation policies.MethodsUsing an issue‐framing survey experiment conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, we assess framing effects on climate change policy support using ordinary least squares regression.ResultsWe find mixed evidence regarding frame effectiveness. Religious moral frames and economic efficiency frames are ineffective, whereas scientific frames, secular moral frames, and economic equity frames are effective at increasing overall policy support. Additionally, the positive science frame and economic equity frame reduce the ideological divide in climate policy support.ConclusionThe effects of issue framing on climate policy support are mixed. Frames that we expected conservatives to be responsive to (religious morality; economic efficiency) fail to change support for climate policy. Frames that emphasize science, secular morality, and economy equity have the potential to increase public support for climate change policies.

Their Proper Places

As digitally produced images proliferate, and the world appears as if transparent to representation, what becomes of our relationship to the prehistory of this delirium of images? An edited collection on Fox Talbot and a recent exhibition and accompanying catalogue at Tate Britain present an opportunity to consider the meaning and effect of our changing relationship to some of the first attempts to fix images of nature permanently. Another book reflects on the process of urban change and records traces of the past in the contemporary city. In different ways, these publications play out the deep tensions in our thinking about photographs as a unique class of historical object. William Henry Fox Talbot, Beyond Photography provides a new, authoritative perspective on one of the most important figures in the early history of photography. This collection of eleven essays with a postscript by Simon Schaffer derives from a conference at the University of Cambridge in 2010. The book exposes the full range of Talbot's interests ‘beyond photography’ (Botany, Assyriology, Philology and Literary Studies, Publishing, Mathematics, Optical Illusions, and Physiological Optics), assessing how these pursuits may have shaped Talbot's methodology and describing the scientific frames of reference that informed his better-known photographic experiments. The essays range across a variety of topics, revealing for us the privileged and now definitively alien world of a gentleman polymath on the cusp of the professionalization of science. This long overdue contextualization of Talbot's photography supplements and in some ways sets out to challenge existing art-historical interpretations, aiming to show how this new material might ‘enhance our understanding of photography itself’ (p. 17).

‘I don’t get this climate stuff!’ Making sense of climate change among the corporate middle class in Lagos

Public engagement continues to be central to wider efforts to address climate change. This study contributes to public engagement debates by investigating engagement with climate change among an often overlooked group, the corporate middle class in Africa's second largest megacity, Lagos. Combining survey and interviews, I focus analysis on three aspects: awareness, knowledge and concern; role of scientific and social frames in shaping general attitude; and spatial attribution of causes and consequences. The study reveals a universal awareness and high concern about climate change among the respondents, although understanding and perceptions of climate change are significantly socially framed. Social situatedness, more than scientific facts, is the most important definer of overall engagement with climate change. This study thus underscores a nuanced constructionist stance, showing how corporate professionals' 'ways of knowing' climate change is underpinned by a certain co-production between scientific and socio-experiential frames. I highlight implications for research and public engagement with climate change.

Decoding the genotype of Greenway design thinking and practice: a Steadmanian frame for systematic understanding, synthesis and tracking of multidisciplinary discourse

The concept of Greenway has been gaining strength in its role as an organisational strategy for the matrix of open, naturalistic and urban spaces. Multi-disciplinary approaches and methods have been increasingly making their way into the Greenway design and planning. Multidisciplinary infusions and ongoing evolution of Greenway thinking, places a demand for a frame that facilitates a systematic understanding, synthesis and tracking of the changes in thinking and practice since a clear understanding of the current is fundamental to craft the future. As a response to this need of a universal frame, this paper explores and advocates a Steadmanian frame for genotype and phenotype. A targeted review of ecology-oriented Greenways is undertaken for synthesis of emergent theories, design approaches and practice over the past decade. In conclusion, the article provides clarity to the emergent multi-disciplinary knowledge base, elucidates the genotype, or core principles, of Greenway design thinking and practice, and presents an interdisciplinary universal frame for systematic articulation, presentation and tracking of multidisciplinary Greenway approaches. The article is one in the series on experiments in integration of other, scientific frames in design thinking.

The function of a general concept of disease from an historical perspective

This article questions why medicine fails to provide a general concept of disease for use by doctors, patients and society because the lack of such a unified concept inhibits any definitive distinction between "deviant" and "disease". By providing an historical overview of the particularities related to this question the authors demonstrate that the ever-changing concepts of disease were not driven by the process through which medicine became a science. In contrast to naturalistic concepts of disease, anthropological, sociocultural and psychosomatic concepts are grounded in an understanding of disease that cannot be determined, described and categorized by pathology alone. As a consequence, disease can only be determined or defined in relation to social and scientific frames of reference, as illustrated by an example from the Berlin Nervenklinik (psychiatric clinic) in the early twentieth century. The ways in which the definition of a disease concept represents a normative interpretation can be observed. The authors of this paper argue for the acceptance of this normative definition as a matter of societal agreement. Consequently, transparency is required in the shaping of general disease concepts.