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Supercommunicator
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Supercommunicator

Explaining the Complicated So Anyone Can Understand

Frank J. Pietrucha
AMACOM, 2014
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

Organizations with complex scientific, mathematical or technical information to communicate to the public face a major challenge. New data about their findings, products or projects can be so insider-oriented and multileveled that only people with knowledge of the field can understand what they’re talking about or, more crucially, grasp the context and consequences of the subject at hand. Many companies rely on nontechnical writers to convey their technical stories to the public. The resulting loss of complexity and depth can obscure good news for stakeholders, potential investors and the public. Communications consultant Frank J. Pietrucha spent 25 years explaining complicated scientific information to the public for his clients. He advocates turning complicated abstractions into “big stories,” utilizing narrative techniques and humanizing arcane content. With rare erudition and hard-won practical knowledge, Pietrucha takes on a subject that few other people even recognize exists. getAbstract recommends his methods and manual to journalists, broadcasters, marketing communicators, those in public relations and anyone who must explain complex content.

Summary

The Higgs Boson

In 2013, scientists celebrated something the physicists among them had anticipated eagerly for 50 years: the existence of the Higgs boson, a newly discovered elementary particle. The media touted the discovery as a big deal. Unfortunately, the resultant news stories and articles did not – or could not – explain the significance of the Higgs boson.

Communications consultant Frank J. Pietrucha didn’t understand why those in the know called the Higgs boson a game changer. He reviewed numerous articles and blogs until he stumbled across a video of Columbia University physicist Brian Greene in which he explained that the Higgs boson discovery had “no practical implications of which scientists are aware – yet.”

Greene said that the world often must “wait for theoretical discoveries to turn into practical applications.” He compared the bewildered response of the media and the public to the Higgs boson with how baffled the media and the public were when scientists spoke of discoveries in quantum mechanics in the 1920s and 1930s. Few understood quantum mechanics then, or really understand the field today, but its applications to circuitry led to the invention...

About the Author

Frank J. Pietrucha is the founder of Definitive Communications.

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