[Editors] April 30: Forum on Space, Media, and Public Perceptions

[William T G Litant]

Dear all:
You might find this of interest and are welcome to attend.

Best,
Bill

Begin forwarded message:

>
> The Space, Policy, and Society research group presents:
>
> From “Godspeed John Glenn” to Rovers on Mars:
>
> Space, Media, and Public Perceptions
>
> A forum with:
>
> John Schwartz, The New York Times
>
> Mike Cabbage, NASA Office of Public Affairs
>
> Phil Hilts, incoming director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellows
>
> Moderated by:
>
> Prof. David Mindell, MIT Science, Technology, and Society Program
>
> Wednesday, April 30, 2008
>
> 5:00pm–7:00pm
>
> 32-155, MIT Stata Center
>
> While the space community focuses on the completion of the space  
> station and a possible return to the moon, it is unclear how  
> successfully they are communicating the goals of these projects with  
> the public. Three panelists will discuss public attitudes toward  
> spaceflight, how scientific endeavors are presented in the media,  
> and the communication challenges between the science/engineering  
> communities and the public.
>
> Biographies:
>
> John Schwartz is a science writer for the New York Times. He writes  
> primarily about space travel, and his work has taken him from the  
> Mojave Desert to Moscow. He has written on a wide range of topics,  
> including physician-assisted suicide, computer security, online  
> pornography, robots, and why pregnant women don't tip over. (It has  
> something to do with an extra curve in their spines.) Before coming  
> to the Times, he worked for the Washington Post, and before that,  
> Newsweek Magazine.
>
> Michael Cabbage is the director of NASA's News Services Division at  
> NASA Headquarters in Washington. Since taking that job 11 months  
> ago, he has overseen the agency's news operations, television  
> network, Internet services, photo office and multimedia programs.  
> Cabbage came to NASA after a two-decade career in journalism,  
> spending the last 13 years as a reporter covering the space agency  
> and its programs for the Tribune and Gannett newspaper chains. He  
> also has served as a space consultant for ABC News. Cabbage is co- 
> author of the book "Comm Check: The final flight of shuttle  
> Columbia" and earned a graduate degree in journalism from Stanford  
> University.
>
> Philip J. Hilts, the author of six books, has been a prize-winning  
> health and science reporter for both the New York Times and the  
> Washington Post. Over 20 years, he placed more than 300 stories on  
> the front pages of those papers. His stories have included a report  
> back from one mile below the Pacific Ocean surface in an active  
> volcano, the confessions of a healer in Zambia who was "curing"  
> AIDS, and articles on hypnosis-induced court testimony that resulted  
> in four men being freed from jail.  His most recent book is RX for  
> Survival: Why We Must Rise to the Global Health Challenge (Penguin,  
> 2005).  Hilts teaches science journalism to graduate students at  
> Boston University and has taught journalism to undergraduates at the  
> University of Botswana.
>
> _______________________________________________
>

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