[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

(I have been trying to post this for an hour as a reply to the "Press Conference for Victoria?" thread but for some reason it won't let me, so apologies for what some might see as starting a new topic needlessly...)

Why give a press conference to mark reaching Victoria, or, for that matter, why give one for anything? What's a good reason?

Well, it seems to me that the best - possibly only - good reason to give a formal press conference - the whole panel-behind-a-long-table deal - now is to reveal to the world a Major Discovery, something that absolutely has to have global attention because it has phase-change consequences, repercussions either for "man in the street science" (changing a previously cherished theory or understanding) or practical day to day issues. It's not worth it just to let people know that an odometry milestone has been reached, or a new class of rock has been found, or a big panorama has been completed, because 1) treating everything like that would lessen their impact, and 2) most people - press included - basically don't give a monkey's about those things, which might frustrate those of us here who adore the day to day dramatic explorations of Spirit and Oppy, but it's just the way of the world.

Why? Why the lack of interest? I've been pondering this and think there are several reasons. Firstly, the fact is, while we get twitchy if we don't get our daily fix of UMSF or Exploratorium, most people out there really aren't bothered about what's going on on Mars, around Saturn, or half-way to Pluto because they've no time for it, it's not a feature of their everyday lives. They have kids to raise, bills to pay, jobs to hold down... Sure, they'll maybe think "Hmmm, interesting..." when they hear that a plucky little robot has climbed a hill on Mars, but it's just not that big a deal, especially when the Middle East is about to go up like a special effects sequence from a Jerry Bruckheimer movie... As others have pointed out, "space" isn't a big public new story, a "water cooler story", unless it's Bad news, a shuttle crashing, a spaceprobe being lost, a telescope mirror being the wrong shape. If there's a mistake to uncover, or a scapegoat to blame, or coffins to photograph then hey, Lois Lane has herself a story. If everything's going right, or better than planned, booooooooring. Next celebrity wedding or embarrassing Britney Spears baby incident, please...

Other people don't care because they are, they say, morally opposed to space exploration because they think (some of them genuinely and sincerely, it has to be said) it's irrelevent to our everyday lives, they think that it's an indulgent, money-gobbling waste of scientific energy and funds at a time when the world faces huge challges from global warming, disease, poverty etc... These are often, I've found, the very same people who think nothing of splashing out on expensive restaurant meals, food for their pets, DVD rental, cosmetics, books and magazines... but point out to them that if they cared so much about AIDS or world poverty or homelesnesss they'd buy a couple less trendy novels a year, or buy a few bottles of wine less and send the money to Oxfam or Save The Children then wow, stand back from the fiery breath of their indignation! Change MY lifestyle? Deprive me of my KFC and Batman dvd rental? I don't think so...!

And I don't mean to be unkind, but someone has to say it because we all know and think it - other people, let's face it, are just too stupid and ignorant to have any interest in what's happening "out there". They just aren't aware of what's going on in the world, or beyond it, and don't CARE, as long as they have their cable TV to watch, beer to drink and spouses to punch. Who cares about all that Flash Gordon crap when there's a big game on!!

This "Why don't people get it?!?!?" question flares up in my mind every time I see that glazed-over "Huh?" expression on someone's face when I try to communicate to them the excitement and value of the MER missions and other planetary exploration mission. And yes, it's frustrating, and annoying. I want to grab them by the throat and say "Look! That's a picture from Mars! It was taken by a robot that's lasted over ten times as long as it was supposed to, and was beamed back to Earth to be available on the Internet - for free - a matter of hours later! It's like having a webcam on Christopher Columbus' shoulder, on on Lewis and Clark's hats... don't you see that?!?!? What are you, STOOPID?!?!?!?!?!"

It always amazes, saddens and angers me that the world has countless millions, probably hundreds of millions of people blissfully unaware that we live in an amazing solar system in a spectacularly grand galaxy, which is drifting through a universe of billions of galaxies... I wish I could take them all outside on a clear Lake District night, point up at the sky and make them see that the Sun is one icy crystal in a single snowflake lost in a swirling, drifting, howling blizard of snowflake-like galaxies that is the universe...

Press Conferences aren't going to put across that excitement, they can't. The Hubble people know that, they don't bother with press conferences, they just release killer images and let the pictures speak for themselves. Press conferences are nothing to do with public outreach or education. That's someone else's job.

Whose? OURS. We are the experts and enthusiasts, the ones who "get it", who have the pictures collected and filed and ready to put into Powerpoints and printed out and laminated ready to show people. We're the ones who could - and should - be doing Outreach work in our communities, doing talks to school and community groups, putting on displays of pictures of Mars in our local library or museum, giving people lists of websites to go to to learn more. But why should we? Haven't we got kids to raise and jobs to hold down too? We should because we Get It, and we Get It because we've been given so much, so it's the least we can do, that's why.

So no, I don't think a big press conference with hard-to-see pictures projected on a wall behind a panel of experts wearing "I'd rather be anywhere but here" expressions is the way to get interest going again. The way to get interest going again is to focus on that forgotten middle word in the MER abbreviation. EXPLORATION. The rovers are explorers, they're seeing new things, learning new things, discovering stunning landscapes day after day after day. NASA isn't telling people that, isn't getting that message across I'm afraid, tho some - Steve Squyres and Jim Bell - are trying hard to spread the word. No, I think it's up to us I'm afraid.

If NASA holds a Victoria-related press conference than I hope they'll make it a shameless "For cripes sake, LOOK at this place! Forget the science, this view is GORGEOUS!!!!" celebration of the place, and the planet. If they flash up a picture of a load of float, or a plate of rock, then get some talking head to drone on about how important it is in the bigger geological picture then it'll be a waste of time and money as far as public Outreach and education is concerned. Forget that! Go for the killer punch! Make the rovers, if only for one day, celebrities, play up their amazing journeys, shamelessly tug at the heart strings with images of the poor rovers dragging crippled wheels behind them, or fighting their way out of sand dunes; show sunsets and shadows; forget the Pan and Navcam images, show the achingly-beautiful landscapes in the images created by people like Ant, Dilo, Nirgal, Doug, Olivier and horton etc. Let's play the world at its own game.

Because unless we manage to turn the public - and the media - on to the true beauty and drama and worth of the MER mission then the next big MER-related story is going to be the terminal decline or sudden death of one of the rovers.

And they deserve better than that.

[djellison]

The problem is, and this is the very simple, very basic core of the entire topic.

Some people just don't care.

To us, that makes no sense. But I'm afraid it doesn't have to. I don't care about football and I struggle to understand some people do....but they do. I don't really want someone ramming football down my throat to try and make me care about it...because I just don't care. When it's on the news ( and it is..a lot ) I just don't take any notice.

Now - we might say "but that's just football...we're talking about a DIFFERENT PLANET with ROVERS taking PICTUREs...don't you understand how AMAZING that is?".... but I'm afraid you can just swap the words around and it's equally valid "but that's just space...we're talking about the end of season PLAYOFFS we might get back in the PREMIERESHIP and play in EUROPE". I've seen the same arguments made in a few fields on interest....but rarely do people admit that at a root level, the majority of people just don't care about what we're interested in - and no matter how you butter it, how you show it, what you say or the way you say it...they will forever not give a damn about it.

Are those people wondering why I don't 'get' football? I hope not..

I've given talks to astronomy societys and you can tell that almost all the audience love the subject matter and understand the implications and the wonder of it all.

I've given talks to schools and you can tell that most of the audience, 13-18, don't really care. Some do however, and it is very very worth while taking the time to engage with them, instill some knowledge and enthusiasm within them. But the rest, and indeed the majority of the public who don't give two hoots about space in general....I wouldn't describe them as a 'lost cause' - but I don't think we should expect to be able to change them either.


Doug