Leadership

My time studying at the University of South Carolina was unique. I was a student during an unprecedented global pandemic in which the way people learned, worked and lived was governed by the behaviors of a microscopic virus. During this time, the public relied on scientists to keep them safe and to explain to them how the virus could affect their lives. Therefore, societal understanding of the scientific research performed during the COVID-19 pandemic was paramount. It affected in the decisions of federal and local lawmakers, the newly established societal norms such as mask wearing, and the way that society understood the pandemic as a whole. However, the dissemination of this vital scientific information to the general public was poor, as evidenced by the varying interpretations of data and conflicting public opinions regarding how the pandemic should be handled. 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a problem that has silently plagued society for years: the longstanding disconnect between the scientific community and the general public. This disconnect occurs because people lack the skills and background information to interpret the complex and confusing scientific papers and scientists aren’t expected to present information in a way that the general public could understand. However, during my time at the University of South Carolina, I developed several tools that allowed me to effectively communicate scientific information to a non-scientific audience.  Specifically, I gave speeches on scientific information to a non-scientific during my within the classroom experience in SPCH 140 Public Communications class. I also presented scientific data to a room of executives with backgrounds in marketing and accounting during my beyond the classroom research at Marquette University. In both situations, I was challenged to communicate complicated scientific information in a way that people without a scientific background could understand. 

 

Traditionally, data and conclusions reached from scientific studies are published in scientific journals that require paid subscriptions and employ language that only people with a PhD in the field can easily understand. Sometimes, the way in which information conveyed through these avenues is even confusing to undergraduate science majors. The lack of understanding of published scientific works is substantially greater for the general public. However, if society is to draw benefits from the extensive scientific research, there must be a new system in place for conveying data. I have discovered that making simplified analogies to common experiences or well-understood concepts and consistently taking time to explain how very specific data related to the overall purpose of the research aided in peoples’ understanding of complicated scientific information.

 

Using the skills that I have acquired during my undergraduate studies and that I have highlighted in the key insight entitled "Your Audience Knows Nothing", I could act as a bridge between the scientific community and the general public. Starting a podcast series that explains the latest in published scientific works would provide a space for the general public to access complex information in a way that they can understand and use in their everyday lives. This would bridge the gap between the scientific community and the general public. A podcast is a platform that is easily accessible to the general public and can be widely disseminated online to reach a broad audience. Through this avenue, I could employ the communication practices I developed at the University of South Carolina to explain important research to people in a way that they could easily understand. 

 

I would market my podcast to undergraduate students by partnering with the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of South Carolina and asking them to use my podcast as a resource for students who are looking to become involved in undergraduate research. This would provide not only a small audience base, but could offer additional resources to the podcast if undergraduate and graduate researchers were interested in being guests on the podcast to discuss their research. I would also try to market the podcast through the Student Success Center at the university to reach a broader, non-scientific audience. Finally, I would use social media to reach students that do not use either of those two university resources and to reach students who may not attend the University of South Carolina. Since the goal of the podcast is to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the general public, social media marketing to groups beyond the University of South Carolina campus community would be the most valuable means of sharing my podcast. The success of the project could easily be measured by the number of podcast subscribers. As subscriber numbers increase, the intellectual gap between the scientific community and the general public would decrease.  

 

It is vital that the gap between the scientific community and the general public is closed so that people can actually benefit from advancements in science and technology. Under the current structure, intellectual barriers prevent the average person from accessing new and relevant scientific information. This problem will only worsen as scientific methods become more complicated with the advancements in technology and the general public begins to give up deciphering the foreign language that information is presented in. The scope of my podcast would be initially small, but it would publicize this important issue and hopefully get non-scientific audiences more interested in the vast abilities of researchers to uncover revolutionary information with real-life implications. Additionally, it will begin to bridge the wide gap between science and society so that research done in the future can benefit the entire human population. 

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