scholarly journals “A matter of time”: Evidence-making temporalities of vaccine development in the COVID-19 media landscape

2021 ◽  
pp. 0961463X2110322
Author(s):  
Mia Harrison ◽  
Kari Lancaster ◽  
Tim Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Development Time ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Efficacy And Safety ◽  
Calendar Time ◽  
Public Science ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
Epistemic Object

This article investigates how evidence of the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines is enacted in news media via a focus on the temporality of vaccine development. We argue that time constitutes a crucial object of and mechanism for knowledge production in such media and investigate how time comes to matter in vaccine evidence-making communication practices. In science communication on vaccine development, the vaccine object (along with the practices through which it is produced) undergoes a material-discursive shift from an imagined “rushed” product to being many years in the making and uninhibited by unnecessarily lengthy processes. In both these enactments of vaccine development, time itself is constituted as evidence of vaccine efficacy and safety. This article traces how time (performed as both calendar time and as a series of relational events) is materialized as an affective and epistemic object of evidence within public science communication by analyzing the material-discursive techniques through which temporality is enacted within news media focused on the timeline of COVID-19 vaccine development. We contend that time (as evidence) is remade through these techniques as an ontopolitical concern within the COVID-19 vaccine assemblage. We furthermore argue that science communication itself is an important actor in the hinterland of public health practices with performative effects and vital evidence-making capacities.

A critical appraisal of diversity in digital knowledge production: Segregated inclusion on YouTube

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110348
Author(s):  
Kaiping Chen ◽  
June Jeon ◽  
Yanxi Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Core ◽  
Inclusion Phenomenon ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Digital Knowledge

Diversity in knowledge production is a core challenge facing science communication. Despite extensive works showing how diversity has been undermined in science communication, little is known about to what extent social media augments or hinders diversity for science communication. This article addresses this gap by examining the profile and network diversities of knowledge producers on a popular social media platform—YouTube. We revealed the pattern of the juxtaposition of inclusiveness and segregation in this digital platform, which we define as “segregated inclusion.” We found that diverse profiles are presented in digital knowledge production. However, the network among these knowledge producers reveals the rich-get-richer effect. At the intersection of profile and network diversities, we found a decrease in the overall profile diversity when we moved toward the center of the core producers. This segregated inclusion phenomenon questions how inequalities in science communication are replicated and amplified in relation to digital platforms.

Novel interfaces in science communication: Comparing journalistic and social media uptake of articles published by The Conversation Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110193
Author(s):  
Lars Guenther ◽  
Marina Joubert
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public Science ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Agenda Setter ◽  
Or Economics ◽  
Media Ecosystem

Science amplifier platforms such as The Conversation have gained popularity in a changing media ecosystem in which the traditional roles of journalists are eroded, and scientists are urged to engage with society. The Conversation constitutes a blend of scientific communication, public science communication and science journalism, and a convergence of the professional worlds of science and journalism. In this study, we investigated the nature and impact of the Africa-focussed edition of this platform, The Conversation Africa. We analysed articles published over a 5-year period since its launch in 2015 ( N = 5392). Contents from South Africa dominate the platform, but contributions from other African countries are increasing. Regarding the role of The Conversation Africa as an inter-media agenda setter, mainstream media more often republished stories related to politics or economics, while stories about social issues such as education, conservation and art were more often shared on social media.

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.

scholarly journals Challenges in the collaboration between researchers and in-house communication professionals in the digital media landscape

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. A04
Author(s):  
Kaisu Koivumäki ◽  
Erkki Karvonen ◽  
Timo Koivumäki
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Qualitative Interview ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Public Science ◽  
Occupational Roles ◽  
Science Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Qualitative Interview Study

In the changing science communication landscape, researchers may govern their public science-society relations through the social media connections at their fingertips. However, digital media outreach may create challenges for researchers and cause changes in the communication professionals' role. The aim of this qualitative interview study was to enhance understanding of the challenges in the rarely explored organizational collaboration between researchers and communication professionals. The results identify ambiguous duties and responsibilities, as well as blurring boundaries of occupational roles and coordination challenges in content production.

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Co-creation

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Rock ◽  
Mark McGuire ◽  
Alexandra Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Conceptual Models ◽  
Joint Knowledge Production

With its conceptual origins in marketing, design, and education, co-creation also has analogues in the fields of science and museology. Reviewing its development in these different disciplines highlights some common challenges (e.g., power relations) and benefits (e.g., joint knowledge production, critical thinking, and shared investment). Aligning this overview with conceptual models such as Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation and Bakhtin’s carnival theory we aim to further inform the development of co-creation broadly within science communication.

scholarly journals BLV: lessons on vaccine development

Retrovirology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Abdala ◽  
Irene Alvarez ◽  
Hélène Brossel ◽  
Luis Calvinho ◽  
Hugo Carignano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bovine Leukemia Virus ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Leukemia Virus ◽  
Efficacy And Safety ◽  
Live Attenuated Vaccine ◽  
Inactivated Vaccines ◽  
Infected Cells ◽  
Sterilizing Immunity

Abstract Vaccination against retroviruses is a challenge because of their ability to stably integrate into the host genome, undergo long-term latency in a proportion of infected cells and thereby escape immune response. Since clearance of the virus is almost impossible once infection is established, the primary goal is to achieve sterilizing immunity. Besides efficacy, safety is the major issue since vaccination has been associated with increased infection or reversion to pathogenicity. In this review, we discuss the different issues that we faced during the development of an efficient vaccine against bovine leukemia virus (BLV). We summarize the historical failures of inactivated vaccines, the efficacy and safety of a live-attenuated vaccine and the economical constraints of further industrial development.

Assessment by Audiences Shows Little Effect of Science Communication Training

2020 ◽  
pp. 107554702097163
Author(s):  
Margaret A. Rubega ◽  
Kevin R. Burgio ◽  
A. Andrew M. MacDonald ◽  
Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch ◽  
Robert S. Capers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Communication Training ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
Public Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Science Community

As the science community has recognized the vital role of communicating to the public, science communication training has proliferated. The development of rigorous, comparable approaches to assessment of training has not kept pace. We conducted a fully controlled experiment using a semester-long science communication course, and audience assessment of communicator performance. Evaluators scored the communication competence of trainees and their matched, untrained controls, before and after training. Bayesian analysis of the data showed very small gains in communication skills of trainees, and no difference from untrained controls. High variance in scores suggests little agreement on what constitutes “good” communication.

Science Communication of Hazards with Scientific Uncertainty: In the Cases of Volcanic Activity

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miwa Kuri ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Communication ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Disaster Prevention ◽  
Cooperative System ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Activity Information

This paper studies cases in Japan, focusing on information on volcanic activities as well as other natural disasters. This information is given as an example of scientific communication in times of scientific uncertainty when there is an urgent need for judgments. This paper also considers the usage of volcanic activity information by residents of Kuchinoerabu Island in 2015, from the time their volcano became active to when the island was fully evacuated. The results suggest that it is important not only to establish relationships with highly interested local residents as non-experts, residents who can communicate information, including uncertainties, but also to communicate information among experts, government bodies, and designated members the news media. It is also suggested that a cooperative system of geoparks that feature disasters and benefits would help the volcanic disaster prevention council.

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