Why is Sci Comm so Important

American Journal of Botany, 2009

In this essay, we review research from the social sciences on how the public makes sense of and participates in societal decisions about science and technology. We specifi cally highlight the role of the media and public communication in this process, challenging the still dominant assumption that science literacy is both the problem and the solution to societal confl icts. After reviewing the cases of evolution, climate change, food biotechnology, and nanotechnology, we offer a set of detailed recommendations for improved public engagement efforts on the part of scientists and their organizations. We emphasize the need for science communication initiatives that are guided by careful formative research; that span a diversity of media platforms and audiences; and that facilitate conversations with the public that recognize, respect, and incorporate differences in knowledge, values, perspectives, and goals.

Science communication is an important issue both in the United States and globally. This course covers topics in science and biopolitics.

2021

Citizen science and science communication go hand in hand as communication between researchers and participants is crucial in citizen science projects. A workshop about science communication during the ÖCSK 2020 Conference embedded citizen science and science communication in the third mission of universities. It invited participants to join in on a thought experiment based on future thinking and to share their science communication experiences. The results showed that researchers engaging in science communication, especially with the participants in their projects, require competences and resources to do so. However, communication is also relevant within the project team, with other researchers (who are not engaging in citizen science) and traditional media.

Nature …, 2009

communication: public engagement and science journalism. These two main themes are interrelated; the dissemination of knowledge is one part of a multifaceted approach toward increasing public involvement in science issues and decision-making. We conclude with specific recommendations for moving forward.

Several publications have sought to define the field of science communication and review current issues and recent research. But the status of science communication is uncertain in disciplinary terms. This commentary considers two dimensions of the status of discipline as they apply to science communication -the clarity with which the field is defined and the level of development of theories to guide formal studies. It argues that further theoretical development is needed to support science communication's full emergence as a discipline.

9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'23)

On the one hand, science is increasingly entering the governance of modern society. On the other hand, society seems to be lagging behind scientific achievements, increasingly often unable to understand its language. The language gap is based on the well-known intimidating appeal of STEM programs and the unreasonable timidity of scientific degree courses to include communication skills as mandatory. An open course was experimented to provide students with the necessary tools to decode and encode the essential elements of science communication, regardless of disciplinary content. The course, which was designed following the 5W+H "golden rule" of non-academic science communication, has been offered for three consecutive years to nearly one hundred students. The students' perspective is analysed in terms of their perception that they have achieved their own learning expectations. The main result is that it is possible to involve undergraduates, graduates and professional...

In this essay, we review research from the social sciences on how the public makes sense of and participates in societal decisions about science and technology. We specifi cally highlight the role of the media and public communication in this process, challenging the still dominant assumption that science literacy is both the problem and the solution to societal confl icts. After reviewing the cases of evolution, climate change, food biotechnology, and nanotechnology, we offer a set of detailed recommendations for improved public engagement efforts on the part of scientists and their organizations. We emphasize the need for science communication initiatives that are guided by careful formative research; that span a diversity of media platforms and audiences; and that facilitate conversations with the public that recognize, respect, and incorporate differences in knowledge, values, perspectives, and goals.

Science Communication in the World – practices, theories and trends, 241-257, 2012

Over nearly three decades, science communication has become established as a subject of teaching and research in universities across the world. Its standing as an academic discipline continues to be debated, but graduate degree programmes and doctoral research in the field are increasing. Partly reflecting its inherent multi-and interdisciplinary content, science communication is embedded in different institutions in different ways. These developments have been driven mainly by individual champions, but in some cases also by institutional and government policies. The diversity of science communication programmes reflects in part the various histories and institutional affiliations of the programmes. The diversity can be seen as a sign of the subject's vitality but it is also a condition of its vulnerability. Many science communication teaching programmes have given rise to consultancies, applied research, publishing and, perhaps most notably, doctoral research, but information from the promoters of science communication programmes indicates that some programmes are particularly exposed to the rationalisation affecting higher education institutions in many countries. Science communication's position between and across disciplines and departments may mean it is not always well equipped to defend itself just when its need is most apparent.

Tecnoscienza : Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, 2017

: Originating in science outreach and influenced by social studies of science, science communication is now an established field of graduate education, of empirical and applied studies and of theoretical reflection. The establishment of this field has been marked inter alia by the publication of dedicated journals, reference books and handbooks, and the organisation of regular international conferences and professional networks. The process reflects developments in science-society relations as expressed, for example, in notions of post-academic, post-normal, or mode-2 science, all of which posit the permeability of the previously conceived boundaries, leading to more communication between institutions and between the cultures of science and of institutions and the culture of the wider society. In this article we have selected ten terms that are frequently used in the public, professional and policy discussions about questions of science in society. Keywords : science communication; ...

Science Communication, 2008

Building on discussions at two workshops held at the recent 10th International Conference on the Public Communication of Science and Technology during June 2008 in Malmö, Sweden, this article proposes specific steps toward achieving a common understanding of the essential elements for academic programs in science communication. About 40 academics, science communication professionals, and students from at least 16 countries participated in this process.