Search

There is a growing appreciation of the need to engage the public around climate change, but how much do researchers and practitioners agree on how to go about this? How do they approach communicating climate change, and what are their motives for doing so? The Climate Communication Project1 aims to understand and evaluate existing expertise in the UK on communicating and engaging the public with climate change. By bringing together the key findings from a survey of 178 climate communicators and a one-day ‘expert elicitation workshop’, this report explores consensus and disagreement around some key principles of climate communication and engagement. It captures some key findings about how we are engaging the UK public on climate change, and points towards possible next steps to improve public engagement on climate change.

Concerned with the relation of the digital and the analogue, our paper takes the insights of video game studies as its starting point in a consideration of Jonathan Ying’s Doom: The Board Game (Fantasy Flight, 2016), exploring issues of immersion, community, and identity as they translate from the digital to the analogue in the implementation of the longstanding Doom franchise.As Frans Mäyrä remarks, “the release of shooter game Doom in 1993 by id Software is heralded as a landmark event by most gamers and game historians” (Mäyrä, 2008, pp. 101). Released by id Software on 10 December 1993, the shareware version of Doom 0.99 (AKA 1.0), is estimated to have been downloaded by 15-20 million people (Armitage et al., 2006). Since then there have been 12 more full releases of Doom, starting with Doom II: Hell on Earth in 1994 and culminating with the 2016 reboot of Doom for the eighth generation of video games consoles. Multiplatform in every sense, the Doom franchise expands beyond the videogames, to include: a set of four novels; a comic book; a 2005 film adaption starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson; and two board games published by Fantasy Flight Games (2005 & 2016).It is unsurprising, given its iconic status, that Doom the video game has been the subject of a great deal of critical scrutiny, prompting in-depth discussions of in-game and real world violence (Bryce and Rutter, 2002), gender politics ( Jenson et al 2015; Kafai, 2008; Thornham, 2008; Burgess et al., 2007), cinematic spectacle (Bryce and Rutter, 2002), immersion (McMahan, 2003, Mäyrä, 2008), modding (Laukkanen, 2005, Postigo, 2008), and VR (Loguidice and Barton, 2012). It is to this body of work that our paper responds, applying the insights of video game studies to Doom: The Board Game, and investigating the ways in which our readings of the analogue might prompt a reconsideration of the digital.ReferencesARMITAGE, G., CLAYPOOL, M. & BRANCH, P. 2006. Networking and online games: understanding and engineering multiplayer Internet games, John Wiley & Sons. BRYCE, J. & RUTTER, J. 2002. Spectacle of the deathmatch: Character and narrative in first-person shooters. In: KING, G. & KRZYWINSKA, T. (eds.) ScreenPlay: Cinema/videogames/interfaces. BURGESS, M. C., STERMER, S. P. & BURGESS, S. R. 2007. Sex, lies, and video games: The portrayal of male and female characters on video game covers. Sex roles, 57, 419-433. JENSON, J., TAYLOR, N., DE CASTELL, S.& DILOUYA, B. 2015. Playing With Our Selves: Multiplicity and identity in online gaming. Feminist Media Studies, 15(5), 860-879 KAFAI, Y. B. 2008. Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: new perspectives on gender and gaming. Massachusetts and London: MIT press LAUKKANEN, T. 2005. Modding Scenes-Introduction to user-created content in computer gaming. LOGUIDICE, B. & BARTON, M. 2012. Vintage games: An insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time, CRC Press. MÄYRÄ, F. 2008. An introduction to game studies, Sage. MCMAHAN, A. 2003. Immersion, engagement and presence. The video game theory reader, 67, 86. POSTIGO, H. 2008. Video game appropriation through modifications: Attitudes concerning intellectual property among modders and fans. Convergence, 14, 59-74. THORNHAM, H. 2008. “It's A Boy Thing”: Gaming, gender, and geeks. Feminist Media Studies, 8(2), 127-142

It is common within games research to explain the socialising effects of game rules in terms of their ‘simulation’ (Frasca) or ‘procedural’ rhetoric (Bogost). This perspective suggests that the rules of games are expressive devices that ‘persuade’ players to adopt the ethical values of the game’s designer. From this perspective, ideology is literally encoded into the games that we play through the manipulation of rules. This article offers an examination of personal and social reflexivity to challenge the claim that game rules penetrate player subjectivity this deeply. Indeed, it argues that players have the reflexive capacity to discern between their values as biographical subjects and the normative content of game rules. This distinction is crucial to explaining how gameplay shapes human agency; not through coercion, but by reference to the relational character of player-game interactions: to those common ‘goods’ (or ‘evils’) that ruled play generates. By way of example, this article considers the competitive and cooperative rules that typify popular analogue and digital games to show how relations of trust, caring and reciprocity (and their obverse) emerge through play. This has important ramifications for how we conceptualise the added social value of games in society, and the baring that contemporary forms of play have on social solidarity and integration in the future.

Paul Booth (DePaul, Chicago) - ‘Missing a Piece: (The Lack of) Board Game Scholarship’There’s a piece missing from media scholarship—the board game. Even though board games are a mainstay in many households—from Chess to Monopoly to Settlers of Catan to Arkham Horror—they are a remarkably understudied phenomenon within media studies. In this talk, I will explore some of the reasons why board games are largely absent from media scholarship, discuss possible ways of integrating board games into media scholarship, and argue for two areas where board game studies would augment contemporary media studies: fan studies and transmedia studies.Ultimately, this talk will explore the boundaries of media studies, seeing media as a continuum of experiences rather than as a technology-driven foundation. I want to argue that media studies has maintained and fostered a relationship to the screen that belies the importance of non-screen mediations, like the board game. Despite their long history, board games have been little studied in the academy. They are hard to analyze because they are so personal—every play experience will necessarily be different each time. They offer an object missing a major component—the players themselves. But undertaking a board game analysis reveals so much more than just the mechanics of the game; it uncovers the player at the heart of all media. Perhaps, then, the missing pieces aren’t board games themselves, but rather the players that make games meaningful. For without players—without audiences—what use is media studies at all?

The Royal Society of Chemistry held, to our knowledge, the world’s first Twitter conference at 9am on February 5 , 2015. The conference was a Twitter-only conference, allowing researchers to upload academic posters as tweets, replacing a physical meeting. This paper reports the details of the event and discusses the outcomes, such as the potential for the use of social media to enhance scientific communication at conferences. In particular, the present work argues that social media outlets such as Twitter broaden audiences, speed up communication, and force clearer and more concise descriptions of a researcher’s work. The benefits of poster presentations are also discussed in terms of potential knowledge exchange and networking. This paper serves as a proof-of-concept approach for improving both the public opinion of the poster, and the enhancement of the poster through an innovative online format that some may feel more comfortable with, compared to face-to-face communication.

The Royal Society of Chemistry held, to our knowledge, the world’s first Twitter conference at 9am on February 5 th, 2015. The conference was a Twitter-only conference, allowing researchers to upload academic posters as tweets, replacing a physical meeting. This paper reports the details of the event and discusses the outcomes, such as the potential for the use of social media to enhance scientific communication at conferences. In particular, the present work argues that social media outlets such as Twitter broaden audiences, speed up communication, and force clearer and more concise descriptions of a researcher’s work. The benefits of poster presentations are also discussed in terms of potential knowledge exchange and networking. This paper serves as a proof-of-concept approach for improving both the public opinion of the poster, and the enhancement of the poster through an innovative online format that some may feel more comfortable with, compared to face-to-face communication.

This study demonstrates novel measurements of in situ ozone (O3) concentrations and thermodynamics sampled on-board an instrumented Skywalker Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Small spatial and temporal gradients were observed over a localized region, which nearby ground-based in situ measurements lack the ability to resolve. It was found that the UAV-measured O3 concentrations provided a useful additional indicator of O3 variability at the sub-urban scale. The ability to sample subtle variability over a localized area highlights the important and novel capabilities of UAVs to rapidly characterize local area micrometeorology and chemistry.

The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) forms the main infrared sounding component of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites's (EUMETSAT's) Meteorological Operation (MetOp)-A satellite (Klaes et al. 2007), which was launched in October 2006. This article presents the results of the first 4 yr of the operational IASI mission. The performance of the instrument is shown to be exceptional in terms of calibration and stability. The quality of the data has allowed the rapid use of the observations in operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) and the development of new products for atmospheric chemistry and climate studies, some of which were unexpected before launch. The assimilation of IASI observations in NWP models provides a significant forecast impact; in most cases the impact has been shown to be at least as large as for any previous instrument. In atmospheric chemistry, global distributions of gases, such as ozone and carbon monoxide, can be produced in near–real time, and short-lived species, such as ammonia or methanol, can be mapped, allowing the identification of new sources. The data have also shown the ability to track the location and chemistry of gaseous plumes and particles associated with volcanic eruptions and fires, providing valuable data for air quality monitoring and aircraft safety. IASI also contributes to the establishment of robust long-term data records of several essential climate variables. The suite of products being developed from IASI continues to expand as the data are investigated, and further impacts are expected from increased use of the data in NWP and climate studies in the coming years. The instrument has set a high standard for future operational hyperspectral infrared sounders and has demonstrated that such instruments have a vital role in the global observing system.

The aim of this special issue on science communication is to inspire and help scientists who are taking part or want to take part in science communication and engage with the wider public, clinicians, other scientists or policy makers. For this, some articles provide concise and accessible advice to individual scientists, science networks, or learned societies on how to communicate effectively, and others share rationales, objectives and aims, experiences, implementation strategies and resources derived from successful, long-term science communication initiatives. Although this issue is primarily addressing scientists working in the field of the biomedical sciences, much of it similarly applies to scientists in other disciplines. Furthermore, we hope that this issue will also be used as a helpful resource by academic science communicators and social scientists, as a collection that highlights some of the major communication challenges that the biomedical sciences face, and which provides interesting case studies of initiatives that use a breadth of strategies to address these challenges. In this editorial, we first discuss why we should communicate our science and contemplate some of the different approaches, aspirations and definitions of science communication. We then address the specific challenges that researchers in the biomedical sciences are faced with when engaging with wider audiences. Finally, we explain the rationales and contents of the different articles in this issue and the various science communication initiatives and strategies discussed in each of them, whilst also providing some information on the wide range of further science communication activities in the biomedical sciences that could not all be covered here.