Mass_Media_Is_Responsible_for_the_Socio-Scientific_Awarenesss

Good morning everyone. The topic before the house today is – “Mass media is responsible for Socio-scientific awareness”, and I, Dhruv Kapoor, being a member of the proposition would like to prove how violent this topic really is. First of all I would like to tell you what actually scientific literacy is. It is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. It involves the negotiation of socio-scientific issues and requires ability to make informed decisions regarding these issues as they have moral and ethical implications too. We confront issues with a scientific dimension on a daily basis through the media. If the idea of scientific literacy is to have relevance for situations where students encounter science, it has to include the ability to engage constructively in socio-scientific issues in examining a variety of real world issues and grounding scientific knowledge in such realities. In today's world, such issues might include the impact on society of: global warming, genetic engineering, animal testing, deforestation practices, nuclear testing and environmental legislations. I would like to ask you a question – Is everyone a professional scientist' Of course not. People need to be able to use scientific processes and habits of mind to solve problems faced in everyday life and to confront issues that involve science and make informed decisions. They must be capable of considering and resolving criteria about controversial science and social issues. The socio-scientific issues offer way to explore the nature of science, bridge student and scientific literacy, interdependence of science and social movement and democratizing science in society. The media confronts citizens almost daily with news about scientific issues and controversial social by-products like the use of stem cells in medical research and therapy; the release into the atmosphere of substances that are harmful for public health, for the greenhouse effect and that reduce the ozone layer. This kind of news introduces citizens to a different type of science from the one that is usually presented in science classes. Most formal science education focuses on a conventional, non-controversial and reliable science and doesn’t discuss its tentative nature while the media’s news highlights a “borderline science”, that is controversial, preliminary and under debate. Nowadays, the media, taken as a whole, are considered the most easily accessible sources of science information to the general public. For most people, the reality of science is what they read in the press. The media represent the only contact most of the population has with the rapidly changing fields of science and technology, as well as a major source of information on the social implications of these changes. For example, the need for information on several aspects relating to nutritional value of foods and their usage was apparent among the lower educational and income groups. A close relationship between the extent of exposure to communication media and usage and the pattern of dietary knowledge and practices was elucidated. Women needed greater exposure to media to improve diet. Education and incomes, particularly among women, were found to be the most crucial factors limiting their diet. The greater role to be played by communication media, especially mass media in producing authentic dietary and health information through more creative programmes is brought out. WHO, World Health Organization, has started the wider dimension of family planning starting from proper spacing and limitation of births to sex education, genetic counselling, teaching home economics and nutrition. This programme makes a planned and scientific approach to the issues and problems of family life and attempts to solve them to make the family life happy, harmonious and fruitful. A study found that a wider gap exists between urban and rural areas regarding knowledge about AIDS, where every 8 out of 10 urban women know about AIDS but almost half of the rural women still do not know about AIDS. Mass media play a major role for growing awareness about AIDS in both of these areas. Decision-makers are facing the very difficult task of either making reforms with serious short-term impact on the economic development and Western lifestyle, or risk future environmental disasters of hitherto unseen dimensions. Global disagreement concerning the Kyoto treaty is an example of different risks evaluations and priorities made by decision-makers. So let us remind ourselves about the media which is the fourth pillar of the government, which is not so just in name but also in strength. Scientific researches are of no use and irrelevant unless that research becomes a socio-scientific issue and media is the best way to disperse its benefits. So by now I think that I have been able to convince you of the responsibility of mass media for socio-scientific awareness.