First of all, the scientific quality of the public needs to be improved.
In today's world, science and technology are the primary productive forces, and the scientific and cultural quality of the public is the primary national strength, which has become a social consciousness. In the final analysis, the contest of comprehensive national strength is the contest of talents, the contest of national ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality, and scientific quality is an important part of national comprehensive quality. Judging from the actual situation of China's economic and social development, national quality has become a bottleneck restricting China's comprehensive national strength to continue to climb and develop. The results of the fifth national survey on public scientific literacy in 2004 show that the proportion of the public with basic scientific literacy in China is 1.98%, which is 0.58 percentage points higher than that of 5438+0.98% in 2006. In 2000, the proportion of the American public who reached the basic scientific literacy level was 17%. Another survey shows that 13.3% of the public in China believe in superstition, which is much higher than the number with basic scientific literacy. In addition, 20.4% of the public believe in "seeking a visa"; 26.6% believe in physiognomy; 14.7% people believe in "constellation prediction"; 22.3% people believe in Duke Zhou. It can be seen that it is urgent to improve the scientific quality of the public in China in an all-round way, with great responsibility and arduous task. It is the historical responsibility entrusted to the media field by the times to conscientiously implement the Outline of the Action Plan for National Scientific Literacy, promote the popularization and dissemination of science and technology, and promote the improvement of public scientific literacy.
Second, the status quo of mass media science and technology communication
With the advent of the information age, the mass media has an increasing influence on people's study, life and work. Television, radio, newspapers, books, audio-visual products, computer Internet and other mass media are important channels for the dissemination and exchange of science and technology in modern society and the main means for the public to carry out popular science propaganda and science and technology education.
China media has long played an important role in the dissemination of science and technology. Science and technology books, newspapers and periodicals, as traditional media, are constantly developing in science and technology communication. At the same time, with the application of electronic technology, electronic media has developed rapidly, and television, radio and computer networks have become more prominent in popular science. Relevant survey results show that in China, 9 1%, 44.9% and 22.4% of the public obtain scientific and technological information through television, newspapers, magazines and radio respectively. Radio and television stations at all levels have set up fixed popular science columns or programs, and CCTV and some local television stations have set up special science and technology channels.
However, at present, the strength and quality of popular science in mass media are far from meeting the needs of the situation, and there is still great potential to be tapped. The proportion of science and technology programs in TV broadcast time is obviously low. Among the national television stations, CCTV has the greatest influence, and it has a special science and education channel. However, in terms of broadcast time, science and technology programs account for less than 5%, which is far from the United States and Japan (about 20% and 15% respectively). The ratings of TV popular science programs in various places are generally low, and the column brands with wide influence have not yet formed. There are some problems in radio and television popular science programs, such as single form, less popular science content and rough program production. It is difficult to attract more public, and the content, quality and broadcast time of the program need to be improved and improved. From the perspective of publishing industry, there is a lack of popular science books and periodicals with novel content, lively content, simple explanation, easy understanding and illustrations, and the number of people concerned about popular science books is relatively small, so it is very difficult to distribute popular science books and periodicals. With the development of computer and network technology, popular science websites have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, with more than 180 websites providing popular science information services and dozens of professional popular science websites. However, at present, a considerable number of popular science websites are poor in content, single in expression, unable to provide services with sufficient information, timely updates and strong attraction, lack of cooperation among websites, low-level repetition of popular science content and lack of interaction with network users.
The mass media's scientific and technological communication ability is not enough, which is influenced by many factors such as policy level, talent level and technical level, and is also impacted by market economy. From the policy point of view, the scientific and technological communication ability of the media has not attracted enough attention. From the perspective of talents, there is a lack of competent scientific and technological editing team. Compared with other professional journalists, the total number of science and technology journalists is far from enough, and it is structurally lacking. Some media practitioners have a low scientific and technological quality, have a superficial understanding of the nature of science, sometimes make common-sense mistakes in their reports, or interpret science in some uncommon language, which is difficult for readers to understand. With the development of market economy, operating according to the laws of market economy has become the knowledge of media industry. In the face of fierce industry competition, there are also some problems in the rapid development of mass media, such as excessive popularization leading to vulgarization, excessive pursuit of the ownership of the audience (such as newspaper circulation and TV ratings) leading to the loss of the credibility of the media itself, and some inferior advertisements becoming the visual garbage of the audience, etc. In the fierce competition, the popular science function of mass media has been weakened, and public welfare programs such as popular science pages and columns have gradually disappeared in some mass media.
Third, give full play to the popular science function of mass media.
Relevant government departments, scientific workers and popular science workers should understand and master the laws of media communication, give full play to the role of various media organizations in improving the scientific quality of the public, and use television, newspapers, the Internet and other means to vigorously popularize scientific knowledge, carry forward the scientific spirit, publicize scientific ideas and advocate scientific methods.
1, TV media
With the increasing popularity of television, television has become an indispensable part of people's lives. Relevant survey data show that the penetration rate of home TV in cities and towns in China has reached 99.3%. With the improvement of farmers' living standards, the TV penetration rate in rural areas has also been greatly improved. We should give full play to the advantages of TV media and make use of this convenient and popular media to popularize science and technology education. Making novel TV popular science programs, establishing popular science education channels, establishing popular science competitions, holding popular science lectures, holding popular science forums and designing popular science dialogues are all positions where TV can show its talents. Through the innovation of TV channels, programs, production and methods, we will spread scientific knowledge and methods, let scientific programs and popularization enter thousands of households, and let the masses accept science in entertainment.
2. Newspapers and magazines
The position and role of newspapers and periodicals in popularizing cultural and scientific knowledge is unchangeable. Their carriers, contents, portable methods and prices all have the traditional charm that modern media such as TV and Internet can't match, which can provide more choices and acceptance opportunities for the masses. The key is to establish high-quality and high-grade publications, explain science in simple terms, clarify the relationship between science and society, and the positive and negative effects of science on society, life and human beings, so as to achieve the goal of popularizing science. Periodicals, weekly magazines, monthly magazines and cartoons with local characteristics can also be established to let the masses participate in science, understand science and applied science, and closely link life with scientific and technological progress.