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Northern Exposure: promoting Arctic science news to the Canadian Public.

Article Excerpt
INTRODUCTION

IN 2008, THE ARCTIC INSTITUTE WON an International Polar Year (IPY) grant, through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, to promote Arctic science to Canadians. The award was timely for a number of reasons.

For one, the Arctic is currently the focus of much public attention because of the obvious and massive impact of climate change. In the past decade, sea ice has broken extent minimums three times. Scientists suspect that some polar bear populations are in danger because of lost habitat. Warming temperatures are causing vegetation changes on mountain slopes and on tundra. Anyone at all familiar with the Arctic knows this list could go on.

In addition, more attention is currently being paid to the endeavor of communicating science to the public. Governments, scientists, and communication professionals are all making an increased effort to present research results to the public--albeit for very different reasons. There's even a small but growing cadre of journalists dedicated to science news.

And of course, the Arctic science promotion program falls at the end of the fourth IPY, when many science projects are beginning to return results.

Yet the landscape is not without its valleys. Layoffs are gutting newsrooms in Canada and the United States, and science reporters are among the first casualties. Some evidence shows the public's interest in science is waning. Traditional media are losing audiences to non-traditional sources such as websites, blogs, and other forms of social media. This paper will offer a short discussion of the Arctic Institute's IPY project in the context of the wider movement to promote and publicize science.

IPY Project

In 2007, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) announced that it had set aside $5 million for communication, outreach, and training projects. The objectives of the INAC program are to raise awareness of the Canadian Arctic and northern issues, create dialogue and build connections between northern and southern regions of Canada, promote IPY, engage children and youth in polar science, and provide research training to Northerners.

The Arctic Institute's project promotes Arctic science stories to Canadians through the news media. Working with the editors of national and international journals, the project manager selects articles that might attract media attention. Authors are then interviewed, and media releases are written and distributed across Canada. So far, the project has been particularly successful with news media in the North, which have picked up close to 50%...

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