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The hubble wars
Book Reviews
Eric J. Chaisson The Hubble Wars New York: HarperCoUins, 386 pp., $15.00, 1994 The Hubble Wars offers a fascinating and instructive look at how NASA, in an attempt to control the image of the Hubble Space Telescope from 1990 to 1994, exacerbated the problems created by the telescope's spherical aberration. Written by an astrophysicist on the senior staff of the Space Telescope Science Institute who directed the Institute's Educational and Public Affairs Office, the book is a cautionary tale that demonstrates how much damage can occur to an organization when it fails to communicate openly and honestly. Chaisson indicts NASA as an "inept public-affairs operation." According to the author, NASA failed to educate the public about the Hubble. "Despite all its rhetoric about education," he proposes, "NASA had built history's most expensive and visible science instrument without having any associated educational program." Moreover, he attacks NASA for poor planning and for providing inaccurate and misleading information regarding the telescope's operation and capability. Chaisson criticizes NASA for creating poor media relations. He asserts that during the telescope's commissioning period, the media provided "sensational journalism and gloomy editorializing" and abandoned "objective reporting." Yet, Chaisson places the blame for the coverage squarely on NASA's shoulders. "Little or none of the media distortion would have occurred," he observes, "had NASA been candid about the status of the Hubble mission and forthcoming it its relations with the press." The author concludes by attacking NASA, proposing that the agency be "thoroughly reformed or replaced." The Hubble Wars is an outstanding case study of an unsuccessful public relations campaign. It offers valuable lessons to public relations professionals, especially those in technical or scientific fields, and adds to the growing literature on governmental public relations and crisis communication.
James Kauffman Indiana University Southeast Marsha L. Vanderford and David H. Smith The Silicone Breast Implant Story: Communication and Uncertainty Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 207 pp., $19.95, 1996 Is there any industry as desperately in need of good communication, good public relations, as health care? In The Silicone Breast Implant Story, Marsha L. Vanderford and David H. Smith present their multi-faceted Summer 1998
257
Eric J. Chaisson The Hubble Wars New York: HarperCoUins, 386 pp., $15.00, 1994 The Hubble Wars offers a fascinating and instructive look at how NASA, in an attempt to control the image of the Hubble Space Telescope from 1990 to 1994, exacerbated the problems created by the telescope's spherical aberration. Written by an astrophysicist on the senior staff of the Space Telescope Science Institute who directed the Institute's Educational and Public Affairs Office, the book is a cautionary tale that demonstrates how much damage can occur to an organization when it fails to communicate openly and honestly. Chaisson indicts NASA as an "inept public-affairs operation." According to the author, NASA failed to educate the public about the Hubble. "Despite all its rhetoric about education," he proposes, "NASA had built history's most expensive and visible science instrument without having any associated educational program." Moreover, he attacks NASA for poor planning and for providing inaccurate and misleading information regarding the telescope's operation and capability. Chaisson criticizes NASA for creating poor media relations. He asserts that during the telescope's commissioning period, the media provided "sensational journalism and gloomy editorializing" and abandoned "objective reporting." Yet, Chaisson places the blame for the coverage squarely on NASA's shoulders. "Little or none of the media distortion would have occurred," he observes, "had NASA been candid about the status of the Hubble mission and forthcoming it its relations with the press." The author concludes by attacking NASA, proposing that the agency be "thoroughly reformed or replaced." The Hubble Wars is an outstanding case study of an unsuccessful public relations campaign. It offers valuable lessons to public relations professionals, especially those in technical or scientific fields, and adds to the growing literature on governmental public relations and crisis communication.
James Kauffman Indiana University Southeast Marsha L. Vanderford and David H. Smith The Silicone Breast Implant Story: Communication and Uncertainty Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 207 pp., $19.95, 1996 Is there any industry as desperately in need of good communication, good public relations, as health care? In The Silicone Breast Implant Story, Marsha L. Vanderford and David H. Smith present their multi-faceted Summer 1998
257