This video is, what I call, effective communication to the public. Absent of scientific jargon and dizzying statistics, "Shift Happens" leaves its viewers with knowledge of the present and future of Globalization and the Information Age across the globe. With accurate information pulled from scientific journals and websites, the video gathers, sometimes what seems 'surreal', information about topics from government-funded research to excessive product development to supercomputers.
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In the latter, I said some of the information seems "surreal" because the video mentions facts like Nintendo investing more money on research and development for a product than the the U.S. federal governemnt does on research and innovation on education.
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Some of the information surprises me quite a bit. For example, did you know: China, which has the largest population in the world, will soon be the largest English speaking country in the world?
3 comments:
I have seen this before. It's AMAZING at getting information across. You read this stuff in books or websites and hear it in classes, but to visually see these words and numbers selectively displayed, some even bolded, with background music...it is simply more effective than words alone. There is another video that comes to mind that shocked me with reality using images as well.
Tying this into comm 285, I think it's critical that scientists can take what they study and convert it into analogies and visuals that the general public can interpret. The more people that understand the scientific viewpoint, the more will appreciate the energy that goes into causes such as how to minimize the affects of global warming, how to solve the issue of overpopulation, how to mediate the ever growing amount of drug-resistant pests and microbes, etc. First, the public must be educated, before a shift in viewpoint occurs. Ultimately, an alerted viewpoint influences our actions and behaviors toward the topic.
I feel this is a great presentation. I agree that this film is for scientists and also for any normal person who is seeking information about where our world/country is headed.
I would consider this more of a power point presentation then a movie because the presentation just consists of words and music. This is a way to get people who are bored by reading to get involved with statistics and science. I think movies are more appealing to the average person because they can get involved with the movie better than an article because they do not need to imagine the scene, the scene is already provided for them. This involves less thinking. If scientists are able to provide their new discoveries through film, it would be an easier way to get their information out to the public.
I agree Tom. The general public did not really understand or look into the study behind Global Warming and ozone depletion until Gore did his "Inconvenient Truth". Visual literacy and presentation does really help with trying to get a science across.
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