A Recap

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Akin ◽  
Ashley R. Landrum
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Biases And Heuristics

This synthesis chapter summarizes the central themes from the essays in Part VI of the handbook. The uniting refrain of this section is the important role of the audience, and specifically how audience choices, attention, biases, and heuristics affect interpretation of complex scientific topics. We first summarize what we term “phenomena of selection” and describes empirical insights indicating that audience and communicator choices can cause diverging views. The second focus is how audiences reason about scientific information, with particular attention to some of these biases and motivations relied on in these contexts. The unique challenges these phenomena pose to the field are then discussed, including (a) how communicators can effectively condense scientific information while retaining accuracy and the interest of audiences and (b) how science communication must accommodate for audiences’ use of values and cognitive shortcuts to make sense of these issues.

Mutable Matter: Using Sensory Methods in Public Engagement with Nanotechnology

Leonardo ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Last
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
Pilot Program ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future

Mutable Matter is an experimental public engagement pilot program that seeks to enable non-scientists to explore and co-imagine the future of nanotechnology. Located at the intersection of geography, science communication and art practice, Mutable Matter is intended as a starting point for examining playful sensory engagement methods bridging tangible public and intangible scientific spaces. The project both challenges the role of non-scientists as mere commentators on pre-decided innovation trajectories and draws attention to the way scientific information is creatively encountered in the public realm.

Role of Science Communication in beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of science and technology issues among European citizens

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Rubin ◽  
Giuseppe Pellegrini ◽  
Lubomir Šottník
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
Understanding Of Science

<p>The last decade had seen an emergence of a new more dynamic and inconsistent media ecosystem. Digital media (i.e. social media) are accused by many independent researchers and influential observers, to have played a significant role in spread of science misinformation. Wide-ranging discussions about so-called ‘post-truth’ or ‘fake news’ phenomena have significantly involved science-related topics such as vaccines, GMO’s, climate change or homeopathy.</p><p>The issue of credibility and reliability of information is therefore central for science communication and public understanding of science.</p><p>CONCISE (“Communication role on perception and beliefs of EU Citizens about Science”), an EU research project intends to understand the role of science communication in beliefs, perceptions and knowledge of science and technology issues among European citizens from five countries: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Slovakia.</p><p>This paper presents preliminary quantitative results from Italian public consultation analysis regarding preferred citizen´s information channels and sources of scientific information. We will explore data to understand how trust in science is built, how citizens form opinions about the science, which sources of information they use and how they think can science communication could be more effective.</p>

Genome Editing or Genome Cutting? Communicating CRISPR in the British and German Press

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Yoo Yung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Word Processor ◽  
Public Science ◽  
German Press ◽  
Legal Questions ◽  
British Press ◽  
Legal Frameworks

AbstractIn this paper, I analyze the role of metaphors in public science communication. Specifically, it is a case study of the metaphors for CRISPR/Cas9, a controversial biotechnology that enables scientists to alter the DNA of any organism with unprecedented ease and has raised a number of societal, ethical and legal questions concerning its applications – most notably, on its usage on the human germline. Using a corpus of 600 newspaper articles from the British and German press, I show that there are striking differences in how these two European countries construe CRISPR in public discourse: the British press promotes the image of CRISPR as a word processor that allows scientists to edit the DNA, replacing spelling mistakes with healthy genes, whereas the German press depicts CRISPR as genetic scissors and thereby underlines the risk of mutations after cutting the DNA. I suggest that this contrast reflects differences in the legal frameworks of the respective countries and may influence the attitudes towards emerging biotechnologies among the British and German public.

Science communication and mediatised environmental conflict: A cautionary tale

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252098513
Author(s):  
Claire Konkes ◽  
Kerrie Foxwell-Norton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Environmental Conflict ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
James Cook ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Tenured Position

When Australian physicist, Peter Ridd, lost his tenured position with James Cook University, he was called a ‘whistleblower’, ‘contrarian academic’ and ‘hero of climate science denial’. In this article, we examine the events surrounding his dismissal to better understand the role of science communication in organised climate change scepticism. We discuss the sophistry of his complaint to locate where and through what processes science communication becomes political communication. We argue that the prominence of scientists and scientific knowledge in debates about climate change locates science, as a social sphere or fifth pillar in Hutchins and Lester’s theory of mediatised environmental conflict. In doing so, we provide a model to better understand how science communication can be deployed during politicised debates.

From rationalization to rationality: (In)sustainability of strategic narratives in  science communication, ranging from climatic change to hydro-meteorological extremes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Ribau ◽  
Rui Perdigão ◽  
Julia Hall
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Living Condition ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Strategic Narratives

<p>Strategic narratives (persuasive use of story systems) in science communication have been gathering<br>increasing support, especially in the face of misunderstandings about high-impact climatic change and hydrometeorologic extremes.<br>The use of these narratives reveals, in line with linguistic research, that traditional scientific discourse<br>conception has become outdated. Should scientific discourse be centered on the description of discoveries?<br>Should the role of political discourse be to convince someone to act? Before answering these, it is necessary to<br>understand the crucial function that uncertainty plays in communication, along with its consequences in the<br>concepts of objectivity and truth. More importantly, understanding its role in scientific society and sustainability.<br>Unable to eliminate uncertainty altogether, science becomes an essential escort to recognize, manage<br>and communicate its pertinency. However, the most popular strategic narratives sideline uncertainty as a threat.<br>Denialists follow a similar approach, though they communicate uncertainty to discredit evidence. Comparatively,<br>in their latest Assessment Report, the IPCC characterized uncertainty whilst stating: “uncertainty about impacts<br>does not prevent immediate action”.<br>Scientific discourse outputs and social reality constructions influence each other. The moralization of<br>science communication reveals how XVII century revolutionary skepticism can now be perceived as a threat, and<br>facts expected from science can be deemed dogmatic truths and perceived as decrees through rationalism and as<br>an extension of Judeo-Christian philosophical influence. Equally important, uncertainty reinforces individual<br>freedom, while society grasps and recognizes certainty as security and demands it from institutions, accepting<br>degrees of authoritarianism to maintain a tolerable living condition.<br>From “Climate Emergency” to “Thousand-Year Flood”, public interest in climatic change and extremes<br>increases following high-impact events, yet trust in science plunges into a deep polarized divide among absolute<br>acceptance and outright rejection relative to the bold headlines conveyed not only in the media but also in some<br>scientific literature.<br>Political, religious and activist leaders strike one as prophets acting in the name of science. From<br>rationalism to rationality, scientific culture is pivotal to the analysis of complexity, objectivity, and uncertainty in<br>the definition of truth (absent from epistemological discussions for centuries). Humor/sarcasm, literature or<br>dialectic are examples of how to communicate entropy of scientific models, while reflecting about the role,<br>uncertainty, and mistake, retain in life.<br>“People want certainty, not knowledge”, said Bertrand Russel. However, neither science nor democracy<br>work like that, rather taking reality as having shades of grey instead of a reduced black-or-white dichotomy.<br>Science is not about giving just one single number to problems clearly not reducible to such, as that gives a false<br>sense of certainty and security in an entropic world where we cannot control everything.<br>In order to objectively analyze discourses in light of their uncertainty features, detecting whether they<br>contain polarized, absolutistic narrative patterns, we introduce a new process-consistent Artificial Intelligence<br>framework, building from Perdigão (2020, https://doi.org/10.46337/200930). The complementarity of our<br>approach relative to both social and information technologies is brought out, along with ways forward to reinforce<br>the fundamental role of uncertainty in scientific communication, and to strengthen public confidence in the<br>scientific endeavor.</p>

Evidence Based Medical Prevention: International Experience

2016 ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
Olha Puzanovа
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Preventive Medicine ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
International Experience ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Task Forces ◽  
Cochrane Reviews ◽  
The Us ◽  
Based Medicine

The objective: was to study the international experience of evidence based preventive medicine development as well as to estimate its perspectives in Ukraine. Patients and methods. Main principles and methods of scientific knowledge and research have been used including universal ones, methods of systemic approach, quantitative and qualitative information analysis, classification and systematization of theoretical and empirical data, hystorical and logical methods, health statistics as well). In total 529 scientific information sources have been studied, particularly a number of evidence based medicine (EBM) computer databases, special task forces recommendations and Cochrane reviews on prevention, Register of medical and technological documents for health care standards in Ukraine et al. Results. The contribution of foreign scientific schools in the development of EBM has been determined, as well as the crucial role of scientific works carried out in the US and Great Britain in 1930–80s as to the development of evidence based preventive medicine. The international experience of the development and functioning of evidence based practice centers’ and special task forces on prevention has been summarized, as the experience of the development and implementation of recommendations on prevention in primary health care (PHC) in high income countries acceptable for Ukraine. The concept of evidence based prevention has been first proposed. It is revealed, that EBM implementation in Europe has been prioritized in both the field of infectious diseases prevention and PHC, while there are both the development of differentiated evidence based prevention and early evidence based diagnosis in PHC in the US. Conclusion. The results proved importance of taking into consideration of international experience while evidence based PHC is being developed as a priority in Ukraine.

Organization of school excursions in biology

2020 ◽  
Vol 04 (05) ◽  
pp. 39-32
Author(s):  
Gunay Isfandiyar Sadigov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Methods Development ◽  
New Learning

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of excursions in the lives of students and schoolchildren. The excursion is one of the main forms of educational work. The excursion is one of the main forms of educational work. The tour is conducted according to the school program. The tour is conducted in a group to make it more interesting. Excursions also contribute to the development of polytechnic education, as they give students the opportunity to get acquainted with production, use scientific information in industry and agriculture. From this it can be concluded that excursions occupy a very important place in the life of both schoolchildren and students. Key words: the process of teaching the method of excursion, the principle of vitality, teaching process, introduction of new learning technologies, quality of education, form of training, teaching methods, development and dissemination of the method

scholarly journals Exploring the intersections: researchers and communication professionals' perspectives on the organizational role of science communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisu Koivumäki ◽  
Clare Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Influences ◽  
Research Organizations ◽  
Funding Policies ◽  
Negative Impacts

PurposeThis paper reports on research exploring the intersections between researchers and communication professionals' perspectives on the objectives, funders and organizational influences on their science communication practices.Design/methodology/approachExamining one context, the inter-organizational BCDC Energy Research project based at five different research organizations in Finland, this paper presents data from semi-structured interviews with 17 researchers and 15 communication professionals.FindingsThe results suggest that performance-based funding policies that drive the proliferation of large-scale research projects can create challenges. In particular, a challenge arises in generating a shared sense of identity and purpose amongst researchers and communication professionals. This may have unintended negative impacts on the quality and cohesiveness of the science communication which occurs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was exploratory in nature and focuses on one organizational and institutional environment. Further research with a wider number of projects, as well as funders, would be conducive to a greater understanding of the issues involved.Practical implicationsOn a practical level, this research suggests that the creation of clearer communications awareness and guidance may be helpful in some large-scale projects, particularly involving broad numbers of organizations, individual researchers and funders.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies examining the perspectives of both researchers and communication professionals working over one project, drawing together a range of different institutional and disciplinary perspectives. The results highlight the importance of the influences of funding on science communication aims, assumptions, cultures and structures. The article articulates the need for further research in this area.

scholarly journals Why Should Scientists be on YouTube? It’s all About Bamboo, Oil and Ice Cream

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric B. Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Ice Cream ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
The Public ◽  
Communications Skills ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
Diverse Groups

Scientific information is a key ingredient needed to tackle global challenges like climate change, but to do this it must be communicated in ways that are accessible to diverse groups, and that go beyond traditional methods (peer-reviewed publications). For decades there have been calls for scientists to improve their communication skills—with each other and the public—but, this problem persists. During this time there have been astonishing changes in the visual communication tools available to scientists. I see video as the next step in this evolution. In this paper I highlight three major changes in the visual communication tools over the past 100 years, and use three memorable items—bamboo, oil and ice cream—and analogies and metaphors to explain why and how Do-it-Yourself (DIY) videos made by scientists, and shared on YouTube, can radically improve science communication and engagement. I also address practical questions for scientists to consider as they learn to make videos, and organize and manage them on YouTube. DIY videos are not a silver bullet that will automatically improve science communication, but they can help scientists to 1) reflect on and improve their communications skills, 2) tell stories about their research with interesting visuals that augment their peer-reviewed papers, 3) efficiently connect with and inspire broad audiences including future scientists, 4) increase scientific literacy, and 5) reduce misinformation. Becoming a scientist videographer or scientist DIY YouTuber can be an enjoyable, creative, worthwhile and fulfilling activity that can enhance many aspects of a scientist’s career.

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