How Science is Pictured in Media and Public Culture

Panelists, left to right, at program outset: Rebecca Edelman, UMBC Professor of Media & Communication Studies; Nathan Stormer (Moderator), University of Maine professor and visual scholar; Michael Shaw, publisher, Reading the Pictures; Max Mutchler, Space Telescope Science Institute, Hubble Heritage Project; Marvin Heiferman Curator, Project Director “Seeing Science”; Kurt Mutchler, Senior Editor, Science, Photography Department, National Geographic; Corey Keller, Curator, SFMOMA; and Ben de la Cruz, Multimedia Editor, Science Desk, NPR.

If photography was invented so that the sciences could communicate with each other, now it’s as much about making that investigation relevant to consumers, investors and alternately curious, fearful or enthralled citizens. This discussion is interested in science as a social agenda and a media phenomenon. It’s about the popularization of science, the attitude and approach on the part of science toward its own activities and what the general public sees of it.

On December 1st, 2016, the Reading the Pictures Salon brought together seven experts, drawn from the ranks of curators, photo editors, visual scholars and scientists, to analyze a group of ten news and media photographs. The live discussion took place on the Google HangOut platform accommodating live audio and video with viewer participation via live chat. The Salon was jointly produced with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as part of SEEING SCIENCE, a year-long UMBC project that explores the role photography plays in shaping, representing, and furthering the sciences.

Through original photo research, Reading the Pictures and UMBC identified ten key images representing science in the media for the panel discussion. Fifty more media images, drawn from sixteen categories of science, were featured on Twitter and Instagram in the six weeks leading up to the live event. Those images and descriptions, along with video highlights from the two hour panel discussion, will be archived here in the coming weeks. The Seeing Science salon was produced by Sandra Roa and co-curated by Marvin Heiferman and Meg Handler with writing by Edward Brydon.