Writer Graham Smart, uses his article "Discourse Coalitions, Science Blogs, and the Global Debate Over Climate Change" to highlight the many conflicting positions involved in the ongoing debate on climate change. To most effectively accomplish his goal, he focuses on the genre of argumentative texts and specifically chooses texts that "communicate a clear claim regarding the nature, causes, and implications of climate change-produced by social actors actively engaged in the climate-change controversy." In line with many of the recommendations we have seen in resources throughout the semester, Smart is particularly focused on "research that relates to the public understanding of science and scholarship on collective argumentation in public spaces, with a focus on the notion of the discourse coalition.'" He references his earlier research in contrasting the different positions of two discourse communities: advocates and skeptics, and then uses his current research to introduce a third coalition: eco-optimists. He also highlights the use of scientific blogs as a platform for each of the alliances in arguing their varying opinions.
Smart's findings show that the conflicting perspectives of these three coalitions serve to "create opportunities for communicating knowledge about climate science to their respective publics, albeit in ways that reflect entrenched adversarial positions and a limited view of audience rather than potentially contributing to a fuller public understanding of climate science and greater public engagement within the climate-change debate." Smart argues that the entrenchment of these three coalitions in their own perspective actually results in an unfavorable environment for the public to better understand the issues "the consequence being that individuals are denied the possibility of developing, through dialogue, greater scientific understanding." I believe there is an essential lesson in his findings for us as we approach our final semester projects and consider the important role we each play in increasing the public's understanding of science. While our own research and perspective may differ from others, we each bear a responsibility to think about the topics we are covering more broadly and share a balanced and well-informed view so that the public can use that information to better understand the overall challenges being faced.
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AuthorHi! I am Collin Barker and I am a Marine Biology Major at Roger Williams University, an avid reader and fish keeper. To learn more about me check out my About page. Archives
May 2018
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