Raising Public Awareness of Engineering (2002) / Chapter Skim
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2 Public Awareness Today
2 Public Awareness Today
Pages 10-17
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From page 10... ...
commissioned a survey of public awareness of engineering to be conducted by Harris Interactive. The survey was an attempt to provide better understanding of the results of a series of surveys conducted by Harris Interactive on a continuing basis on topics of interest, importance, and societal concern, such as the "prestige" Americans attach to various professions.
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. ., TABLE 2-2 Results of Periodic Polls by Harris Interactive on the Prestige of Various Professions, 1977-1988 Percentage That Rated Prestige as "Very Great" 1977 1982 1992 1997 1998 Doctor 61 55 50 52 61 Scientist 66 59 57 51 55 Teacher 29 28 41 49 53 Minister 41 42 38 45 46 Policeman NA NA 34 36 41 Engineer 34 30 37 32 34 Military Officer NA 22 32 29 34 Architect NA NA NA NA 26 Congressman NA NA 24 23 25 Lawyer 36 30 25 19 23 Athlete 26 20 18 21 20 Artist 21 20 13 19 NA Entertainer 18 16 17 18 19 Businessman 18 16 19 16 18 Banker 17 17 17 15 18 Accountant NA 13 14 18 17 Union Leader NA NA 12 14 16 Journalist 17 16 15 15 15
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From page 12... ...
Respondents strongly associated engineers with the design of new machines. They share credit with technicians for the development of software and with scientists and technicians for the design of medical instruments.
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The respondents credited engineers with contributions to economic growth, leadership, and national security, but gave them poor marks for contributions to our quality of life and the environment, for inclusiveness, and for social concerns.
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5. Generally speaking, do you feel the media do an excellent, good, fair, or poor job in covering (a)
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The fraction of those who considered themselves poorly informed was somewhat higher among less educated people, and women considered themselves much less informed than men. Figure 2-4 shows that, when the media are considered to do a "fair" or"poor" job covering engineering, the respondents believe the reason is that the media feel the public is not interested.
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From page 16... ...
. alscovenes RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF ENGINEERING _ I i I I I 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% l l The American public feels are not don't feel publicis not the media interested understand interested FIGURE 2-4 Media Coverage Negative 3% Doesn't have much impact 8% \ l Done know ' ~ 1% Positive 88% FIGURE 2-5 Contribution of Science, Technology, and Engineering
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From page 17... ...
Although the collective efforts of engineers dramatically improved the quality of life for Americans in the twentieth century, the public appeared to give them little credit for those contributions. The survey results in Chapter 3 indicate the engineering community has been conducting a variety of public-awareness and outreach programs for many years, some reportedly for more than 20 years.
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