{"id":45,"date":"2024-04-05T09:04:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T07:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/?p=45"},"modified":"2024-04-23T15:21:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T13:21:39","slug":"bird-of-the-century-and-science-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/2024\/04\/05\/bird-of-the-century-and-science-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird of the Century and science communication"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Charlotte Gehrke<\/strong>, PhD student, Nord University, about her time as a visiting researcher in New Zealand<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2023, I had the unique opportunity to join the annual conference of the Science Communication Association of New Zealand (SCANZ) in Aotearoa\u2019s capital city Wellington. At the time, I was a visiting researcher at the P\u016btaiao ki te P\u0101pori <\/em>School of Science in Society at the Te Herenga Waka <\/em>Victoria University of Wellington<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Mural of a p\u016bteketeke. Photo by C. Gehrke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I had initially planned to simply attend the SCANZ conference to learn more about the science communication community in New Zealand as part of my research stay. However, after mentioning my interests in new and out-of-the-box approaches to science communication during morning tea at the School of Science in Society, I quickly found myself included in the conference programme. In addition to joining a panel on generative AI applications for science communication, I ended up giving a lightning talk<\/a> about my research on science communication on late-night television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I had initially planned to present a paper entitled The Daily Show\u2019s Climate Change Content: Two Decades of Late-Night Science Communication<\/em><\/a>, my plans were thwarted when a foreign election interference scandal rocked New Zealand. To be precise, I am not referring to the 2023 general election<\/a> but rather what many described to me in a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor as the \u201cmore important\u201d election of the year: Bird of the Century<\/a>. The latter is a competition run by the conservation organization Forest & Bird, which also runs the annual Bird of the Year<\/a> competition, in an effort to raise funds and awareness for (avian) conservation issues.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
“Lord of the Wings” poster. Photo by C. Gehrke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A few weeks before my presentation at SCANZ, the American late-night show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver<\/em><\/a> decided to join the competition in which groups of passionate conservationists can lobby and campaign for their preferred Bird of the Year or Century. Specifically, Last Week Tonight<\/em> started a global campaign for the p\u016bteketeke to be crowned Bird of the Century. The p\u016bteketeke, also known as the Australasian crested grebe, can be found in Australia and New Zealand where it is considered nationally vulnerable<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver\u2019s show often features hard-hitting yet humorous pieces about a wide range of topics, and the Bird of the Century campaign is not Oliver\u2019s first foray into avian activism, with the host previously covering the hot topic of duck-themed stamps<\/a>. While this might just sound like yet another late-night segment or PR campaign, something comedy and communication scholars might dismiss as so-called slacktivism<\/a>, it is important to stress the real-life impacts of Last Week Tonight<\/em>\u2019s p\u016bteketeke campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Updated mural, including John Oliver. Photo by Geniesa Tay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In my lightning talk, I did just that, highlighting not only the impacts of Oliver\u2019s p\u016bteketeke segments on the (inter)national conversation<\/a> surrounding the Bird of the Century competition, but also the show\u2019s massive impact on voting<\/a>, and, perhaps even more importantly, donations<\/a>. While some have criticized Oliver\u2019s involvement as \u201cfowl play,\u201d<\/a> the competition organizers repeatedly expressed their appreciation for the p\u016bteketeke campaign. A member of Forest and Bird came up to me after my presentation to confirm the positive impact of Last Week Tonight<\/em>\u2019s involvement in Bird of the Century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flagship species<\/a> and competitions, like the p\u016bteketeke and Bird of the Year or Century, can facilitate and support environmental protection efforts around the globe. In my doctoral research, I explore how polar flagship species \u2013 polar bears, seals, walruses, whales, etc. \u2013 and the environmental issues they face are discussed by scientists, journalists, policymakers, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Charlotte’s lightning talk at Bird of the Century. Photo by Jessica Rohde<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlotte Gehrke<\/strong> is a PhD Fellow at Nord University\u2019s Research Division for History, Geography, and International Relations. She also co-created and manages the Arctic Relations blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charlotte Gehrke, PhD student, Nord University, about her time as a visiting researcher in New Zealand In November 2023, I had the unique opportunity to join the annual conference of the Science Communication Association of New Zealand (SCANZ) in Aotearoa\u2019s capital city Wellington. At the time, I was a visiting researcher at the P\u016btaiao … Continue reading Bird of the Century and science communication<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[7],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ukategorisert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.nord.no\/arctic-research-at-nord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}