Sleeping With Science, 2. Waking Up DoST From Its Rip Van Winkle Slumber On Science Stories!

PH’s Department of Science & Technology, DoST, at least 50 years old, starting with President Ferdinand “FM” Marcos’ National Science Development Board, NSDB. Now, in terms of NSDB/DoST science stories for people to learn more, I have not learned of any!

And I am a science journalist who was not born yesterday. So: In science stories, history repeat itself by not repeating itself.

I google for “philippines dost mandate” (without the double quotes) and I get a whole page that says, “Websites sometimes break. Please wait while we put it back together.”

That’s just what the doctor ordered!

Five minutes later… same story. Knowledge Unavailable: That is the inadvertent metaphor for me to describe DoST in relation to the science needs of us Filipinos in these helter-skelter, topsy-turvy, upside-down coronavirus lockdown times.

Here comes Director Richard P Burgos of DoST’s Science and Technology Information Institute, DoST-STII, saying (Allan Mauro V Marfal, 10 August 2020, “Science Communication Should Also Be A Priority In The Time Of Pandemic, Says Dost Exec[1]”):

With the emergence of the pandemic caused by Coronavirus Disease-2019 or COVID-19, reliable and well-researched content and materials have indeed become more imminent – to be able to explain science facts in simple terms that even non-scientists will understand.

I love what Mr Burgos is saying that science communication should be “a priority in the time of pandemic” – nobody else from the DoST has said that before.

Science journalists, please note: “Reliable and well-researched content and materials” refers to the communicator as actor actively seeking data & information, who must then explain science to the non-scientist.

Half a century. Now then, DoST must have theorized and studied much science, and now know more science more or less, but it has not been telling us much lately either.

And in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, now is the time for all good men to come to the literal aid of their country!

Actually, even from my alma mater UP Los Baños, with its own College of Development Communication, DevCom, I have yet to read a story that attempts “to explain science facts in simple terms that even non-scientists will understand.”

I myself began my personal campaign for writing science stories for non-science people some 40 years ago, when I published a technical paper on Communication for Development, ComDev, which I presented in contradistinction with the UPLB DevCom initiative, which did not specifically define communication as a support for development. Perhaps, the DevCom people were thinking that the term “development communication” already implies and mandates that the communication does support society’s growth efforts – well, they were/are still wrong.

According to “Super User[2]” (26 April 2014, dost.gov.ph website), the Long-Term Vision of the DoST is to be the “provider of world-class scientific, technological and innovative solutions that will lead to higher productivity and better quality of life.”

So, where are those higher and better stories, DoST? Wake up! Your sleep has been 2.5 times longer than of American Rip Van Winkle!@517

 

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[1]http://www.dost.gov.ph/knowledge-resources/news/67-2020-news/1904-science-communication-should-also-be-a-priority-in-the-time-of-pandemic-says-dost-exec.html

[2]http://www.dost.gov.ph/transparency/about-dost/mandate-mission-and-vision.html#:~:text=Executive%20Order%20No.,social%20benefits%20for%20the%20people”.