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Colloquium on Science, Technology, Policy and Society - Session 4
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Peuli Bakshi
4:37
Good afternoon and welcome to the final session of the colloquium: ‘Science, Technology, Policy and Society’. We have Shubashree Desikan, Associate Editor, IIT Madras, Shaastra Magazine. The session will be moderated by Dr. Dipankar Banerjee, IISc.
4:42
Shubashree Desikan opens the talk by delving into the role of media in science and society. She lays emphasis on missing conversations in science. "That is when tools were born to utilize things around them well," says Desikan
4:43
"Today science is very responsible," she says. But according to her, gaps in media coverage and what needs to be covered, remain.
4:45
Desikan mentions science communication as being a way of simplifying very complex concepts and offering them to readers from all walks of society.
4:47
Sometimes many unscientific claims can be given out by emotion-driven judgements made by journalists, which should always be avoided, she said.
4:48
"Without democracy there would be no scientific research," says Desikan. However, the coverage of science by journalists is way less than politics or sports, according to her.
4:50
Desikan recalls reading a news lately, mentioning that messaging is wrong in most climate story and scientific reports.
4:51
"When planting trees, one needs to see whether it suits the ecosystem, but none of us talk about it," she says.
The lack of scientific conversation is concerning.
4:54
"As a developing country our (India's) energy conservation should be increased manifold," she said. Conversations on the energy-budget needs to be done. Electric vehicles should be checked for carbon emissions and the data must be made available to journalists.
4:56
She raises an important question: is it practical to have organic locally-grown food?" She says that such issues are not explored.
4:57
Desikan mentions how AI like ChatGPT will be dictate medical prescription and screening.
4:58
According to her, many individuals are likely to lose jobs with the transition of AI-driven jobs. "But which jobs are likely to be affected most by it is not discussed as such," she adds.
5:00
She points out that conversations around non-binary students and women's health in schools are still taboos and need to be explored.
5:01
Desikan elaborates on geo-engineering. She describes it as the earth system to tackle environmental changes like global warming. Researchers continue to explore the pros and cons of increasing earth temperature.
5:03
5:04
"There is no reason that those who oppose eco-fascism should be vary of science in general," she said.
"Commonality is obscured by elite environmentalism."
5:06
"The logic of caste negates the elements of vitalism", according to Desikan. She mentions Mukul Sharma, who showed that Hindu fundamentalism has been able to take over all walks of society with their green-driven approach.
5:10
Adressing a question on how the common public can save themselves from the propaganda-driven scientific reporting, Desikan says a lot remains to done by the journalists in this regard. According to her, contextual information should be given for each news article, at least in the digital media, which is free from space-scrunch, unlike print.
5:12
She recalls an interactive gathering for journalists held at IMSc, in 2018.
According to her, more enlightening colloquiums like that of today's should be organized.
5:16
Answering a question from the audience, Desikan says that today, it is not completely possible for readers to filter what they consume with the social media algorithm at play.
5:17
Do you feel that the algorithm decides what you see, hear and read?
Not at all (0% | 0 votes)
 
Yes definitely (80% | 4 votes)
 
I'm not sure (20% | 1 vote)
 
Total Votes: 5
She opines that false reporting by journalists must not cloud the credibility of research. Desikan says, "We (journalists) need to dig deeper and find out where all the energy-budget (money) is going."
5:29
Desikan concludes her talk by addressing a question on dealing with fake news and the notion of narrative, Desikan recalls people's skepticism around Covid vaccines. Ultimately the public did realize the importance of the vaccine.
5:30
And that's a wrap for the colloquium on 'Science, Technology, Policy and Society'. Thank you all for joining in.
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