GIGO

Making a Difference

This issue marks the seventh anniversary of the NZSM. It would be nice to think that we have made a difference to the public perception of science -- certainly our readers are more aware than most of the broad role of science in this country, but any attempts to make a difference to society itself would need a far more splashy effort than ours.

It is easy to identify scientific and technological issues which impinge on our lives, whether cot death research or cellphone usage. Increasingly we need to be better informed about the science behind these things if we are going to decide what to do about them -- support the cot death appeal or not, use a cellphone or campaign against a local tower.

Yet relatively little has changed in the last seven years in terms of general scientific awareness or coverage. The debates are dominated by the broadcast media, preoccupied with sound-bites and dissession. It's frustrating to see, particularly on the odd occasion when science is presented well just to remind us of how good a medium it can be.

In many countries there is strong support for public science education, evident through quality television programmes, well-financed science centres, good coverage in print media. It is not uncommon for trusts and bequests to specifically target this area -- the Australian Skeptics received over a million dollars from one benefactor who liked their aims.

Most of these functions in New Zealand are privately organised -- when they happen at all -- and all-too-often fall over within a short period. There are many reasons for that, most of which appear to relate to our tendency to concentrate on short-term goals at the expense of staying in for the long haul. It's a problem which affects science at all levels, it seems.

Our own longevity -- seven years is a long time in the magazine world -- has been based primarily on matching our income and our output. It would be nice to have the budget to match the "glossies" for colour and size, but one needs the advertising revenue as well, and there's more money in covering the mating habits of Royals than royal albatrosses. I think of the NZSM as a Mini -- fairly small and not particularly eye-catching, but something which lasts and last and lasts.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.