Helping Science Speak Clearly
May 2, 2016
5/2/16 – A recent weather forecast for the Great Plains prompted widespread public fears of huge tornados—that never occurred. According to the Washington Post, the problem was not the basics of the forecast, but the way it was communicated, without proper balance between uncertainty and risk. This points to a key challenge identified by an experienced communications scholar in Issues: the need for science to find optimal ways to communicate what it knows, how it knows it, and the uncertainties surrounding its findings.