Choosing the right person to speak at your event is a daunting task. If you are looking for someone to connect the dots when it comes to the media, the message of science and your speaking event, look no further. As a media personality, researcher and expert in science communications, public science issues and the impact of the media on you and your group, I bring a unique and entertaining perspective to every keynote, lecture, workshop and presentation. If you need an exciting and dynamic speaker who combines theory and practice in an entertaining package, send me an email. Let's talk!
Some Topics to think about
The Medium
How do vested interests, like the tobacco lobby, the creationists and climate change deniers get access to the media and why are television producers and reporters so eager to express their point of view?
Television is perhaps the most powerful medium ever. And it is becoming even more powerful and influential through computers and the internet. Its influence and ability to skew and misrepresent science and other critical issues make it potentially one of the biggest threats we face today. How can journalists and producers report on the science without any background or understanding in the sciences? What can we do to make Television more responsible in what is aired on TV? Most viewers get the bulk of their science information from TV. And if TV gets the science wrong, so does the viewer.
Global Warming Deniers
The Global Warming debate is heating up....or is it? Why does the average Canadian and American think that climate scientists are divided on anthropogenic global warming, when in fact, the consensus is 97% among the very scientists who study the climate, that people are changing the Earth’s climate among the very scientists who study the climate. Big oil and business dependent governments on all levels are spending a lot of money to create the impression in the public sphere that the jury is still out as to whether there is global warming. Skewed graphs, distorted facts and a host of carefully worded statements, but tellingly, no evidence is being presented by vested interests as science to the public. Why do they do this? How is the media complicit and how successful are they is clouding the issues? Who are they, who is funding them and how are our governments involved with them? What Can We Do About Global Warming? How much time do we have to stop Global Warming. What will it take? How much will it cost? And can we do it? Is it a matter of changing the light bulbs and getting a few new reusable shopping bags? Unfortunately it will take a lot more than that, but the good news is that we still have the time, just barely, to be able to avert the very worst of the effects global warming in the coming decades. Are green technologies the answer? Can business be part of the solution, and can we maintain our lifestyles and still be environmentally effective? What are the costs of doing nothing vs the costs of making a change that will get us on the road to recovery?
Media Literacy We are inundated in the media, bombarded by messages, advertisements, news, factoids, opinions and just plain branding outreach. How do you separate the wheat from the proverbial chaff? Opinions masquerade as news, ill-informed pundits and vested interests cloud the issues and bend the truth into pretzels. Walter Cronkite, the quintessential television newsman, was once said to have been the most trusted man in America. No longer. How the mighty have fallen. Today public opinion poles tells us that more than 50% of the public finds daily news in all media to be biased, skewed and lacking in credibility.
We are flooded with 24 hour news cycles and manufactured consent has become a reality. How does one, in this age of new media, social media and an ever accelerating tsunami of so-called news, find out what to believe and what not to believe? What is the truth, where do you go to find it? Can you find it? It is all about literacy, arming yourself with a few simple tools that cuts out 90% of the BS that we are wading through. Media literacy in an age of ever expanding media and communications. For the first time in human history, the entire sum of human knowledge is available to anyone with a smart phone and the knowledge of how to access it. The trick is to be able to find it.
Selected Past Keynote Speaking Engagements Mensa Halifax Keynote Brunch Speaker - Dalhousie University
Acadia University Film Review - Wolfville - The coming Tsunmani of Climate Change
Recycling Saint John, Annual Conference - Keynote
Alberta Annual Science Teacher's Conference, Banff, Alberta - The Role of Media in Science Teaching
New Brunswick Dept of Energy & Mines Conference, Fredericton - Climate Change and Mining
Atlantic Green Forum in St John's Newfoundland - Green Efforts in Small Canadian Cities
Acadia University, Wolfville - Impacts of Doing Nothing in AGW
Genivar, Keynote, Halifax - Engineering and Climate Change
Armdale Yacht Club, Halifax - Water meets Air
Fire Chiefs Annual Convention, Fredericton - Coming Impacts of Climate Change
Mobiles Awards, Halifax - The value of the three Rs
PEI Co-Op Council Annual Meeting - Charlottetown – Rising Waters
Co-op Atlantic Keynote Speech, Moncton NB
EcoExpo Keynote Speech Halifax, NS
EMAAC Saint John NB
MAMIC Annual Convention, Liverpool NS
350.org, Halifax, NS
St Andrews United Church Men’s association, Halifax NS
Canadian Insurance Claims Managers and Canadian Independent Adjusters Association Conference Getting Ready for the Coming Storms - Wind Waves and Water - Will it be a Deluge?
Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition (Halifax), Children and Teen Talks "Weather or Knot! The Science Behind Everything!” “Is Your Brain Open to Science?
Atlantic Canada Waterworks Association, The Engineering Response to Water and Weather
World Tourism Day (NSCC): "BioDiversity"
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Media and Its Role in Science
Atlantic Planners Institute Annual Conference, Local Climate Change and how the Media Misrepresents our Understanding of Global Warming
Justice Across the Generations Youth Forum, Halifax NS, Climate Change
FocusAcadia Environment Conference, Wolfville NS
Pentz United Church Pent NS, Climate Change
Poster/Paper Presentations
Presentation - Global Conversations in Science Education Conference (held in conjunction with the annual National Science Teachers Association Conference), in San Antonio (2015)
Workshop - Media and Teaching, Banff, Annual Science Teacher's Conference (2014)
Panel Discussion - Perspectives on the Use of News Media To Teach About Socio-scientific Issues. Panel Discussion - Richard Zurawski, Dr. Leo Elshof, Dr. Rebecca Hower and Dr. Mike Bowen (2013)
Panel Discussion - Critical Perspectives on Learning Science from the News Media, G. Michael Bowen, Richard Zurawski & Anthony Bartley, CSSE - Kitchener-Waterloo (2012)
Workshop - The Role the Media Plays In Our Understanding of the World or Coping in The Information Age Nova Scotia Teacher’s Conference - Halifax – 2012
Workshop - Using News Media Resources in the Classroom: Being aware of the issues. Dr Mike Bowen, Richard Zurawski
Panel Discussion - Atlantic Canada and Asia Rising Conference - Saint Mary’s University, Halifax (2011) Panelists - David Gauthier, David Emerson, Yuen Pau Woo, Karen Oldfield, Colin Dodds, Stewart Beck, Richard Zurawski
Science Atlantic 50th Anniversary, Halifax
Guest Lecturer
BEd science methods class MSVU:
Topic: Educational Overview of Modern Physics and Discussion of Schroedinger’s Cat