國家地理:用吐槽的方式談科學(xué)效果更好(2)

Many Americans pay little attention to science. Even people who regularly watch broadcast television news or cable news channels receive only scraps of science information in their media diet, because mainstream outlets devote so little airtime to the subject. On top of that, some Americans may regard science as intimidating and hard to understand, so they avoid the topic altogether.

許多美國人很少關(guān)注科學(xué)。即使是那些經(jīng)常收看廣播電視新聞或有線新聞?lì)l道的人，在他們的媒體信息中也只會收到少量的科學(xué)信息，因?yàn)橹髁髅襟w很少報(bào)道這一塊。最重要的是，一些美國人可能認(rèn)為科學(xué)是令人生畏且難以理解的，因此他們直接避開了這個(gè)主題。

Yet satirical humor can reach viewers who would never watch NOVA or read -- well, National Geographic. Millions of people watch late-night television programs live, and videos of these shows get tens of millions of views on streaming services or YouTube. In 2016, when Paul, his colleague Barbara Ley, and the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication polled a nationally representative sample of Americans, nearly one in 10 said they learned about science from late-night television shows such as The Late Show and Last Week Tonight. This figure was even higher among young people.

然而，諷刺幽默可以觸及從未看過NOVA電視或從未閱讀過《國家地理》的觀眾。數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的人觀看深夜電視節(jié)目直播，這些節(jié)目的視頻在流媒體服務(wù)或YouTube上獲得了數(shù)千萬的觀看次數(shù)。2016年，保羅和他的同事芭芭拉·萊伊，與特拉華大學(xué)政治傳播中心一起對全美進(jìn)行了抽樣調(diào)查，近十分之一的人表示，他們從深夜電視節(jié)目，如《晚間秀》和《上周今夜秀》中了解到了科學(xué)知識。這個(gè)比例在年輕人中更高。

Late-night television programs have mined laughs from science for decades. Even before Carl Sagan became known for the 1980 TV series Cosmos, he was a guest of comedian Johnny Carson, who spoofed the astronomer with an exaggerated pronunciation of "billion" (as in "100 billion galaxies"). Other scientists who've appeared on late-night programs include Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, and Jane Goodall.

幾十年來，深夜電視秀一直尋找科學(xué)的笑料。甚至在卡爾·薩根1980年以電視連續(xù)劇《宇宙時(shí)空之旅》聞名之前，他也曾是喜劇演員約翰尼·卡森座上賓。約翰尼·卡森通過夸張地發(fā)音“十億”這個(gè)單詞來模仿天文學(xué)家（原臺詞是1000億條銀河）。參加深夜節(jié)目秀的其他科學(xué)家還有尼爾·戴格拉斯·泰森、尼爾·卡庫和簡·古道爾。