This week has been filled with interviews, reading, and soul searching all aimed at defining an answerable research question to focus the rest of my thesis work. My original question did not take into account some aspects of this field of study that I am finding increasingly prominent.
For example, evidence-based policy making is a relatively new field that aims to address policy making more holistically while still establishing public policy that is informed by objective information. It has come up quite frequently in my readings but I have not yet discerned if it is completely applicable to my research.
Conversely, a topic that has popped up quite a lot and seems quite fruitful in my research is the use of mediators between scientists and policy makers. These mediators have many aliases including science information professionals, organizational spokespersons, or representatives from universities, scientific societies, or major research laboratories. Whatever they are called, I have found that they are crucial in the communication of science to policymakers, the mass media, and concerned parties alike. It seems that a major problem is that organizations do not have enough of these mediators or do not have them at all.
Additionally, I had a chance to sit down with three researchers who work at the USGS and got their thoughts on research’s translation into policy. To sum it up, they believe that over may years and hundreds of projects and papers, the public will be informed through the mass media and slowly become more interested in some type of research. Eventually a public interest or advocacy group will pick it up and do some digging about past research to cite in their own understanding of an issue. When those groups start to advocate for action from policy-makers, that’s where politicians finally get involved. Where legislators’ information comes from is likely the research that the advocacy groups have cited.
Is all of this true? Who knows, but that’s what I’m looking to find out. Therefore, I have made a few alterations to my research question. The addendums are as follows:
– Once you do the best possible science that you can do, how does it get translated into other forms of actions including policy, negotiations, and private corporations?
– What gets left out? By who? Why? What is the time lag?
– What role to activists play in science communication?
– Who mediates communication between scientists and policy-makers or those who take other forms of action?
I’m not sure if this really narrows my question or just gives me more to think about.
Alas, there are always more questions to ask!
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