communicating ciencia ii€¦ · assignment #2: editing colon grew up in stanislaus county, and...


As you look around this room and greet the colleague next to you, consider the diversity of cultures and experiences here among us.


Communities are not faceless crowds.

The communities we cover — like our readers and even ourselves — are not homogenous. We have real faces.

Aleszu Bajak @aleszubajakCommunicating Ciencia I


Takeaways from “Ciencia I”

1. Don’t just parachute in.1

2. Science may be your reader’s Third Language.2

3. Embrace the awkwardness.1

ScienceWriters2016 | San Antonio, Texas

1Aleszu Bajak @aleszubajak2Robin Gose EdD @MOXISB


¡Bienvenidos! / Welcome!

1. Introduction and Recognitions2. “Pro-Tips”3. Our Panelists and Their “Three Things”4. Learning Activity5. Parting Thoughts


Session Philosophy

● Objective: To come away with ideas and insights to better communicate science to Latinx audiences in the United States.

● Approach: Leveraging the philosophical parallels between science educators and science writers.


Resources and Recognitions

● Many, many others have paved the way in advancing cultural inclusion in U.S. scicomm.

● Please visit communicatingciencia.wordpress.com (Menu > Session Resources > The Ciencia Community) for a list of key people, programs, and pages.


Let’s get started!


Pro-TipFind and type accents on your iPhone keyboard by holding down keys for vowels (or Option [letter] on Mac keyboards). Also works for punctuations.

Try It: #CómoSciWri


Pro-Tip

Diversify your emojis and represent! Insert melanin-gifted faces on your smartphone keyboard by holding down certain emojis.

Try It:


Claudia Pineda Tibbs

1. Activate connections.2. Break down industry vocabulary.3. Partner with a museum or informal science center.

Monterey Bay Aquarium | @LaEcoLatina


Pro-Tip

Though collectively influenced by Spanish imperialism, Spanish-speaking cultures are not homogenous.

Take care to recognize cultural/historical nuances across communities and identities (e.g. Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Peruvians, Chicanos).


Pro-Tip

Chicano/Chicana — also spelled “Xicano/Xicana” — is a self-identifying term used by some Mexican-Americans and Latinos, particularly those with Indigenous heritage.


Pro-Tip

Chicanx and Latinx are gender-neutral proper nouns that are sometimes used in place of “Chicano/Chicana” and “Latino/Latina” in the United States.


José G. González

1. Science has its own culture.2. Demographics are not reversing! 3. Take a cultural lens to science.

Conservation Cultura | @JoseBilingue


Pro-Tip

Avoid “Hispandering” — crossing the fine line between acknowledging and patronizing an ethnic group — by imagining your own identity in place of “Hispanic” when drafting a sentence or narrative.


Pro-Tip

Avoid “Columbusing” — decolonize your speech by checking your writing for historic references, cultural allusions, geographic names, and other elements that devalue, erase or co-opt the perspective of a colonized, Indigenous, or formerly enslaved people.


Pro-Tip

Acknowledge “historicity” — scientific discoveries and processes often have loaded, complicated histories that sideline peoples of color (e.g. Henrietta Lacks; TEK-traditional ecological knowledge). Peel back the layers and understand its implications.


Jenny F. de la Hoz, PhD

1. Expect “hybridity” and “transculturation”.

2. Resist individualism — partner with a bicultural writer!

3. Use graphics to cross language barriers.

Center for Equity and Inclusion | @Fabiola_Science


Time to play!


¡Learning Activity!

● Pair up with the person next to you!

● The back of your handout includes a brief.

● Use our session notes so far to work together and complete your specific assignment.


Your Brief

We have been assigned to produce a longform digital package about the impacts of plastic pollution on rural communities.


Your Brief

Our publication serves a U.S. media market that is 50% Hispanic/Latinx in demographics, spanning 2nd generation residents to recent immigrants. Agriculture is the primary employment sector, followed by service jobs and the local Amazon warehouse.



● ASSIGNMENT 1: Planning a Story● ASSIGNMENT 2: Editing a Story



● ¡Vámonos!● 10 minutes left!● 5 minutes left!● Sharing time!


Assignment #1: Planning

Which perspectives and voices should be covered in the story?

Who do you think should be interviewed, in order for you to craft an inclusive view of these community impacts?


Assignment #1: Planning

What hurdles might you face in securing interviews, visits, and visuals to produce our narratives?

How might we make our story resonate with both Latinx and non-Latinx readers?


Assignment #2: Editing

When Central Valley College environmental researcher Stephen Strange arrived in Stanislaus County, he saw a community in need. Trash littered local streams where immigrant children swam. Illegal trash burns and dumping dotted this rural landscape of predominantly farm laborers from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. But Strange found a ray of hope when he met Angelica Colon, a Hispanic graduate student who rose above her humble roots and walked into his lab one day.


Assignment #2: Editing

Colon grew up in Stanislaus County, and became interested in studying plastics pollution after volunteering with a local environmental nonprofit while in high school. In the course of her internship translating health outreach messages for non-English speakers, she realized that plastic waste had infiltrated all aspects of life in her community: microplastics could be found in the makeup she used and in the fish she ate, while chemicals leached from the water bottles and frying pans her family used.


General Takeaways

● Avoid trap of portraying “brown victims/villains” and “white saviors” (also in photojournalism & captions).

● Consider your choice of characters and vignettes.

● Dig into root causes (i.e. immigrants face systematic barriers and thus are exposed to certain risk factors).


General Takeaways

● How do you write about a person’s individuality or honor a people’s culture without tokenizing their experience?

● How do you incorporate cultural contexts (of the character or reader) into explanations of science?

● Trust your journalistic instincts.


Parting Thoughts


Pro-Tip

Don’t just translate literally. Cultures are living, nuanced contexts that are constantly evolving!


Pro-Tip

Follow bicultural media. Watch shows with strong Latinx protagonists, and listen to podcasts that explore hybridity and transculturation.

Television: Jane the Virgin, One Day at a Time (2017)Podcasts: NPR Code Switch, LatinoUSA, LatinoRebels


Pro-Tip

Año = Year (e.g. Año Nuevo State Park)

Ano = Anus

(Proper spelling and accents matter in certain languages.)


From Our Panelists

● Claudia P. Tibbs

● José G. González

● Dr. Jenny de la Hoz


Parting Thoughts

● What’s the difference between communicating with an inclusive mentality, versus traditional “mass media” perspectives?

● Are there elements universal to all scicomm, versus elements that require emphasis on cultural context?


Parting Thoughts

● Don’t be afraid to ask! Get to know existing resources and leaders for bicultural scicomm and public outreach around the United States.

● Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Have bicultural literacy and bilingual fluency? Many agencies and companies want you.


¡Hasta luego!Find session materials and contribute your pro-tips at:

communicatingciencia.wordpress.com

#CómoSciWri | #SciWri18

communicating ciencia ii€¦ · assignment #2: editing colon grew up in stanislaus county, and...

Documents