Matching Items (2)
Description
Without scientific expertise, society may make catastrophically poor choices when faced with problems such as climate change. However, scientists who engage society with normative questions face tension between advocacy and the social norms of science that call for objectivity and neutrality. Policy established in 2011 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) required their communication to be objective and neutral and this research comprised a qualitative analysis of IPCC reports to consider how much of their communication is strictly factual (Objective), and value-free (Neutral), and to consider how their communication had changed from 1990 to 2013. Further research comprised a qualitative analysis of structured interviews with scientists and non-scientists who were professionally engaged in climate science communication, to consider practitioner views on advocacy. The literature and the structured interviews revealed a conflicting range of definitions for advocacy versus objectivity and neutrality. The practitioners that were interviewed struggled to separate objective and neutral science from attempts to persuade, and the IPCC reports contained a substantial amount of communication that was not strictly factual and value-free. This research found that science communication often blurred the distinction between facts and values, imbuing the subjective with the authority and credibility of science, and thereby damaging the foundation for scientific credibility. This research proposes a strict definition for factual and value-free as a means to separate science from advocacy, to better protect the credibility of science, and better prepare scientists to negotiate contentious science-based policy issues. The normative dimension of sustainability will likely entangle scientists in advocacy or the appearance of it, and this research may be generalizable to sustainability.
ContributorsMcClintock, Scott (Author) / Van Der Leeuw, Sander (Thesis advisor) / Klinsky, Sonja (Committee member) / Chhetri, Nalini (Committee member) / Hannah, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Today, we are experiencing a world where Net Neutrality exists in most of the countries around the world except a handful. Who knows if this will be the case in 10 years? An economy shifting from net neutrality to non-net neutrality could have an effect of wiping out an entire industry of start-ups and innovation. The main stakeholders in this industry are the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who provide services to access, use and participate in the Internet such as AT\&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. The other main stakeholders are the Content Providers (CPs), who provide information or content to the end users through websites such as Netflix, Google, Wikipedia, etc. Before diving into the effects it has on the economy, let's discuss a little about what net neutrality and non-net neutrality really means and their pricing strategies. Typically in an economy where net neutrality exists, the ISPs charge a fixed price to the CPs and the end-users. The ISPs tend to compete on price in order to attract the CPs to use their service for content due to tight competition among the ISPs to capture profits. Thus, these costs to the CPs would be minimal, encouraging individuals from all over the world to innovate and provide content to the end users. The price burden in this case would fall not on the CPs but on the end users. But, ISPs may not be able to over charge the end users either, as they would lose their demand due to competition from other ISPs. Therefore, in spite of being the bearers of heavy investment costs to improve network quality, the ISPs haven't been enjoying profits for a long time. Meanwhile, the CPs are gaining large profits with minimal investment costs thanks to their market power over the ISPs.
ContributorsKosaraju, Sreya (Author) / Bertran, Fernando Leiva (Thesis director) / Mendez, Jose (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05