Author: Kaitlyn Martin – Centre for Science Communication, University of Otago, New Zealand

Co-authors:
Lloyd Davis – Centre for Science Communication, University of Otago
Susan Sandretto – College of Education, University of Otago

Students around the world are losing their passion for science, and they’re losing it at school. Like many countries who do not require science in every year of schooling, New Zealand only requires science to be taken up to Year 10 (of 13) in high school. After this, students must actively choose to stay in science classes or drop the subject – forever. In order to engage students before they choose to stay or leave science, we are testing a new type of initiative in Otago that brings communication into the science classroom. We know that our current adolescents are digital native storytellers – accustomed to curating their lives with photos, videos, and stories on social media. In this project, students become the science communicators as they create their own science films on common mobile devices. Does the process of planning, filming, editing, and presenting their own science films engage students in an untapped learning experience? We hypothesize that through making their own science films, students will become more actively engaged in the interpreation, understanding, and presentation of scientific information which could affect their choice to stay in science.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Show, tell and talk
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Myriam Marti-Sanchez – ESIC Business and Marketing School, Spain

Co-authors:
Ramon Camaño Puig – University of Valencia
Mavi Corell-Domenech – Florida Universitaria (Valencia)
Vanessa Roger-Monzo – ESIC Business and Marketing School

Instinctively, when a person with migraines to whom they prescribe a homeopathic treatment feels the improvement, he or she tends to make an automatic association: “It actually works for me.” However, the brain tends to interpret correlative facts as causal, amongst many other factors.

Homeopathy, included in the list of 139 pseudotherapies recognized since 2011 by the Spanish Ministry of Health, has not shown effectiveness beyond placebo, so it is very likely that the improvement after its application is due to this effect.

The aim of this study is to analyse and evaluate the treatment of the Spanish digital press on information articles related to homeopathy.

To address the research, a content analysis of journal articles published between January 1st, 2012 and December 31st, 2016 on homeopathy has been developed in the three most widely read digital press of general information and ideological orientation of Spain: El País, El Mundo and ABC.

The initial search returned 292 results. After examining all the articles, there were only selected those in which the different uses of homeopathy were treated with detail. Due to the term “homeopathy” has been used metaphorically or superficially, without deepening in the therapy, 115 articles have finally been included in this study. After completing the sample, the corpus was examined with the content analysis and proceeded to obtain data.

The results make possible to clarify the role of media in the transmission of information on homeopathy and to propose a whitepaper of good practices aimed to provide contents for journalism which are useful for health and well-being of the population.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Ilse Marschalek – Centre for Social Innovation, Germany, Austria

Co-authors:
Kaisa Granqvist – Center for Social Innovation
Raffael Himmelsbach – National Technical University of Norway
Francesco Lescai – Aarhus University
Ralf Lindner – The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research
Maria Schrammel – Center for Social Innovation
Angela Simone – Fondazione Bassetti

Industry is an important site of techno-scientific development, yet interventions to fostering public engagement have mostly focused on academic institutions. The Horizon2020-funded project SMART-map aims to develop tools that enable research-intensive businesses to engage with societal values and expectations throughout their innovation processes. Our presentation reports on the project’s quest to design a creative workshop format, which we implemented in six workshops that took place during the first half of 2017, each in different European city. The workshops were shaped by the requirement to enable an eye-level dialogue between actors from academia, industry, the funding and regulatory sector, and civil society, which we identified as interested or affected by – but not necessarily aware of – advances in a given technological field (precision medicine, synthetic biology and 3D printing for medical applications). Moreover, these participants had to deliver concrete tools after one and a half day only. We adopted a creative design method that led around 20 participants through a series of activities, from defining key objectives for ecological and societal responsibility in their technology area, to designing and building physical mockups of tools to achieve these objectives in an industrial research setting. These mock ups were the results of interactive brainstorming and prototyping sessions, in which small groups worked on tangible objects with all kinds of craft materials. Although experience told us that the workshops were too short in duration to deliver sufficiently fine-tuned tools that would be ready for implementation in a company, it showed that this intense, creative method affords deep insight into a given industry sector and the work necessary to jointly define societal needs across different stakeholder perspectives.

Further co-authors: Daniel Bachlechner; Melek Akca Prill; Mari Carmen Álvarez; Javier García Planells; Anna Pellizzone; Enikő Demény; Péter Kakuk; Sally Randles; Mohammad Hajhashem; Rosalind Le Feuvre; Alexander Degelsegger

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Leonardo de la Torre Ávila – The Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Spain

Co-authors:
Franco Bagnoli – Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy)
Mitsuru Kudo – Center for the Study of Co* Design – Osaka University (Japan)

Great research could start when regular people inspire science, when somebody – as explained by Norbert Steinhaus – reformulates, translates society’s questions into a language that scientists understand. One of the methodologies that emerges from communication and understanding between civil society and science is the so-called “Science Shop”. Within a Science Shop experience, universities and research centres allow citizens and civil society organizations to, raising questions, present their problems on any topic, according with the available expertise. The answer may require a simple bibliographic consultation or a specific investigation. The research is assigned to students as part of their final dissertation, under the supervision of an experienced researcher.

In a roundtable discussion, partners of InSPIRES – an ongoing project under European Commission’s Horizon 2020’s programme “Science with and for Society” – will debate on current experiences that present Science Shops as a powerful communication opportunity to trigger bottom-up, demand-driven research. People attending our interactive discussion will analyze how Science Shops and other”communicative science”experiences that InSPIRES partners and advisors are developing in Italy, Spain, Tunisia, Bolivia and Japan look for the best of the Science Shop tradition and more participative methodologies.

Some of the partners’ background in science cafés, radio transmission, blogging and involvement of the population in citizen science projects in the Science Shop framework, will be shared on a discussion based upon a debate on Science bi-directional Communication. At InSPIRES we believe it is possible is to build effective cooperation between science and society by supporting the growth of Science Shops and enabling the expansion of responsible participatory research and innovation in Europe and abroad, in order to tackle key societal challenges that affect the world population.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Applying science communication research to practice

Author: Katharina Marino – Centre for Science Communication, University of Otago, New Zealand

Co-author: Jenny Rock – Supervisor

Far from being a void of silence, the ocean is bustling with life and has a thriving language of its own. Acoustics are vital to whales’ and dolphins’ underwater lives, but as human activities in marine environments increase, so does the noise.

The goal of the sci-art installation, frequensea, was to make the intangible effects of marine noise pollution tangible to the lay public. This novel form of science communication aimed to evaluate how visitors interact and contribute to the co-constructed installation, and how much this model influences awareness and understanding.

Using an open-concept exhibition space, visitors contributed to the main portion of the exhibition by adding to the installation and creating a ‘sound network’ out of elastic strings. As visitors entered the exhibition they chose different colour elastics representing different sources of noise pollution. They were instructed to attach the strings between two rows of columns to create a web of visualised noise. As more individuals added strings, it became progressively more difficult to navigate from one end of the space to the other – physically modelling the interference of marine noise pollution in cetaceans’ ability to efficiently perform basic necessities (including communication, navigation and hunting or foraging for food).

In 10 days, the exhibition hosted nearly 1100 visitors. Observational data gauged how long participants stayed in the string model of noise, how they navigated the space and if they interacted with other individuals. Spot observations were also taken to determine length of engagement with additional exhibition components (video, sound clips and science data visualisations). Exit surveys were completed by visitors to assess previous awareness of marine noise pollution and benefit of exhibition components.

Together this data will help determine if participating in and physically modelling the intangible issue of marine noise pollution can help individuals understand its effect on whales and dolphins.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Vanessa de Kauwe – Australian National University, Australia

The fields of science and science communication have long neglected students with intellectual disabilities. Increasing attempts have been made to include students with some disabilities in science activities, shows and exhibitions. However, when it comes to intellectual disabilities, it has been a case of too little for too long. Recent research reveals that science has been withheld from students with intellectual disabilities for over 40 years in most Western countries, with the exception of some token activities. The rationale for this is twofold. First is the notion that science activities do not assist in the daily life skills which students with intellectual disabilities need. Second, intellectual disability is considered too complex and disparate for a systematic approach of science delivery to be developed.

In contrast, I hypothesize that ongoing science delivery could exercise the observational, rational and logical skills that students with intellectual disabilities find most difficult, and which they require for achieving life skills. I developed multiple science programs, and conducted a series of case studies to investigate the short term and long term effects on high school students with moderate intellectual disabilities (that is, students aged between 12 and 18, who combine social and practical impairments with a tested IQ approximating between 40 and 70). The programs were delivered to 17 students, and data regarding the impact these programs had in their daily lives were collected from the students, their parents/guardians and their teachers at multiple intervals, over a timeframe of a year (74 total participants).

This paper discusses my systematic approach for delivering and evaluating science activities for students with intellectual disabilities. The method involves intricately guiding students through the step-by-step process of observation, logical enquiry and rational response. The results unanimously indicate that such an approach is both possible and beneficial for students with intellectual disabilities.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Jennifer Manyweathers – Graham Centre for Agricultural innovation (Charles Sturt University and NSW Department of Primary Industries), Australia

Co-authors:
Nancy Longnecker – Otago University, Australia
Jennifer Manyweathers – Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation/Charles Sturt University, Australia
Mel Taylor – Macquarie University, Australia

As new disease threats continue to emerge, the creation of risk mitigation strategies relies on clear, timely and proactive communication. The problem is that discourse between various publics and authorities can become mired in distrust and can result in outbreaks of increased severity and duration, wasted resources, and lost opportunities for participatory risk mitigation planning and discussion.

This workshop, based on the story of an actual emerging infectious disease outbreak spreading from animals to humans in Australia, will examine differing worldviews of the stakeholders involved in the discourse, and provide a platform for discussion of the role of risk perception and authority in situations of risk.

Using real data and dialogue, workshop participants will be divided into stakeholder groups, including the scientists who develop the protective vaccine, the pharmaceutical company that manufacture it, vets who administer the vaccine and animal owners deciding whether or not to vaccinate their animals. As the disease outbreak story unfolds, stakeholders will be given more information and required to make key decisions, while deliberating on communication approaches. The workshop concludes with an opportunity for discussion around risk communication and an overview of the key stages of the outbreak story.

While the unfolding story closely follows an emerging, infectious, animal-origin disease outbreak, the principles considered will be applicable to any discourse around risk and mitigation and will broaden participants’ understanding of possible approaches to risk communication.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Workshop
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Chih-Hsiung Ku – National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan

Co-author: Dong-Chi Sun

The concept of rationality in science has been an important issue in the domain of science philosophy, and has been a focus in science education research also. The purpose of this study was to explore the arousal of hot cognition on children’s judgment of scientific explanations under the intervention of social norms. The self-designed instruments “Rationality of scientific explanation test”, “Self-perception test” and “Group discussion worksheet” were utilized to investigate the effect of arousal of hot cognition on children’s judgment of scientific explanations. The main finding revealed that the extent to which hot cognition was aroused and affected children’s judgment of scientific explanations was influenced by class social norms. After the small group discussion, most subjects make sense their behavior with hot cognition on judgment. Analysis of children’s self-perception regarding their judgment of the rationality of scientific explanations revealed that the majority of subjects believed that they were less influenced by social norms than their peers.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Teaching science communication

Author: Ayumi Koso – National Institutes for the Humanities, Japan

Press offices of Western academic and research institutions are relying less on news releases and mainstream media to disseminate scientific information. In contrast, news releases from press offices of leading Japanese research and academic institutions are steadily increasing and sent to press clubs, a closed media outlet membership system, serving as a gateway for media access to scientific information. This study seeks to quantify this trend and explore the role that press officers and press offices play in the process of communicating research to the media through news releases.

A survey about the use of news releases as a way to disseminate research was sent out to 350 press offices of Japanese research institutions, public universities, and private universities to examine the popularity, and the production and dissemination process of news releases in Japanese research and academic institutions.

Analysis of the data suggests that in the academic year 2016, more than half of Japanese research and academic institution press offices informed the media about their research stories via news releases. In addition, news release drafts are often written by researchers, and press offices tend to send news releases to their local press clubs rather than to individual reporters or media outlets. The results will be discussed in relation to the absence of trained or specialized press officers in press offices of Japanese research and academic institutions, and press clubs.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Comparing science communication across cultures

Author: Liesbeth de Bakker – Utrecht University, Netherlands

An important source of information about science is news media. Media do not only inform about emerging issues in society, they also shape the public agenda through their agenda setting function and frames used by journalists. By studying news media content, a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities within the public discourse about emerging, controversial science issues, such as Synthetic Biology (SB), can be obtained.

The emerging field of Synthetic Biology (SB) is expected to bring many promising applications. However, as it is often regarded or described as a form of ‘extreme genetic engineering’, there are also concerns for safety, security and of an ethical nature. Hence, involving society in decision making regarding SB’s potential applications, risks, and ethical issues is necessary. Until now it was largely unknown how SB is covered and framed in Dutch news media. So in this study both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to investigate SB representation in Dutch newspapers.

A total of 261 Dutch newspaper articles (published between 2000 and 2016) were analyzed for 5 aspects. These aspects were also used in similar, recent studies carried out in other European countries. They include 1) publication data, 2) motives for publication, 3) normative impression, 4) mentioned applications, risks and ethical issues, 5) and metaphor use.

Results show that SB media representation was predominantly event-based, positive, future-oriented, relatively small, and science-led. SB media coverage in other European countries shows many similarities. Findings suggest that public discourse about SB in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe is still in its infancy and that the current representation of SB is skewed, mainly focused on the positive, application side of the new technology. In that sense it resembles developments seen in media coverage of genetic engineering. Opportunities and challenges for the public discourse about synthetic biology will be discussed.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Jennifer Manyweathers – Graham Centre for Agricultural innovation (Charles Sturt University and NSW Department of Primary Industries), Australia

Co-authors:
Marta Hernandez-Jover – Charles Sturt University
Heleen Kruger – Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics and Science
Barton Loechel – CSIRO Land and Water
Aditi Mankad – CSIRO Land and Water
Yiheyis Maru – CSIRO Land and Water

Australia’s animal industries rely on their ‘clean and green’ status: free from many diseases that are endemic elsewhere in the world. This status is fragile, relying on a mixture of pre-border, border and post-border control activities. On-farm surveillance is a key component of the post-border control activities. An incursion of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus into susceptible livestock, such as beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, would have devastating impacts on faming families and communities as well as Australian domestic and international markets.

Research has established that by reducing the time between initial infection and when the disease is first detected, the duration of the outbreak and consequently the financial and emotional impact can be significantly reduced. However, this relies on understanding more about the stories behind farmer practices and attitudes towards animal health, which influence the capacity for early detection.

This project aims to build a clearer understanding of these stories behind behaviour, practices and attitudes of farmers around their animals’ health. Initially, segments of the different livestock industries will be identified, according to the risk they face of an FMD outbreak, in relation to potential exposure and capacity to respond to such an outbreak. Risk characterisation data will be collected via a survey and followed by detailed social, institutional and behavioural network analyses to inform the development of an innovative tailored pilot surveillance program. The program will be created within the context of each producer group, based on agricultural innovations systems and aimed at establishing a farmer-led, partnership model to improve on-farm disease surveillance. This bottom up model will allow for individual stories and farming approaches to inform the development of the surveillance program, creating a trust based model for better national disease surveillance for Australia’s animal industries.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Applying science communication research to practice

Author: Kaisu Koivumäki – University of Oulu, Finland

Scholars of science communication have argued that scientific community lacks a culture of genuine science communication and public engagement. With widened scope on public relations research it has been suggested that scientists’ participation in science communication via social media should be valued, measured and manageable. This also requires a strategic management approach including strong commitment from the (research) director, the establishment of social media teams, the implementation of guidelines, ongoing training, integration of goals, and measurement.

This paper describes actions put into practice with researchers in a multidisciplinary and interorganisational research project, organized in five research teams, and the researchers’ perceptions on new practice.

The research teams are given monthly Blog&Tweet-turns. On their turn, following a joint schedule, a team has to deliver blogs and tweets about their research integrated with the projects and funders overall communication goals. When the turn is about to change, the measurement i.e. impact numbers (viewers of blogs, reactions on tweets) are shared and praised. The teams are trained by communication professionals with ongoing support. This includes informal discussions that ease the adoption of new roles as researchers engage in science communication online. The PI of the research project shows example and writes science blogs regularly.

According to preliminary findings on semi-structured interviews of 13 communication professionals and 17 researchers, collected in summer 2017, easy access for support and contact with communication professionals is the most important supportive action. Researchers also appreciate the equality of attention for research teams and topics. The systems simplicity makes the participation manageable and division of labour reasonable which furthers commitment to the turn-taking. Clear majority of researchers plan to have contact with communication professionals in future.

It would be interesting to know how could online turn-taking be scaled up e.g. to a faculty’s communication agenda?

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Show, tell and talk
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Kaisu Koivumäki – University of Oulu, Finland

There are varying reasons behind researchers’ motivation to participate in science communication: traditional duty to disseminate knowledge, deliberating engagement goals, and visibility demands from institutions and research funders that are intensifying globally. Mediatization entails the belief that visibility promotes societal support and competitiveness. But what kind of effect these demands have on researchers’ science communication efforts?

This paper presents preliminary findings of an analysis on data collected in summer 2017 with semi-structured interviews of 17 researchers and 13 science communication professionals. Preliminary findings indicate that researchers’ attitudes are changing and researchers feel pressure/duty to participate in science communication. For many interviewees reason for this was the research funders. Typical belief was that funders implicitly value visibility. The belief seemed to gain strength from visibility-hype connected to social media. The common narrative was: “For funding issues it’s very important to have good image of your work and existence in social media”. When faced with a question of this kind of motivation towards science communication being just self-serving, many interviewees stated the competitive structures of academia but also claimed to approve funders’ ultimate goal to foster dialog with science and society.

Preliminary findings incorporate important notion: the researchers share the belief that funders value visibility whether this is known fact or not, and are willing to act accordingly. The findings seem to relate to the blurred concepts of communication, engagement and impact online, and the continual lack of solid, evaluation instrument of (digital) impact as part of research assessments. The parties don’t exactly know the gain.

Further findings will be presented and discussed from the viewpoint of conceptualisations of science communication distributed globally by institutions and funders. Important aspects of discussion addresses the communication practitioners’ encouragement of researchers’ science communication efforts: the beliefs about funders’ understanding of science communication foster motivation and action.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Applying science communication research to practice

Author: Jian quan Ma – National Academy of Innovation Strategy CAST, China

As technology is more and more popular in public’s daily life, the scientific policy decision making become the burst point between the government and the public: if lack of public participation government decision-making will be taken as against modern democratic and political aspirations, but once intruduce public participation, the decision full of “science and technology” is easy to be questioned and even boycott by the “ignorant” public. The PX project decision-making process in China is a typical case. PX is a chemical product with wide range of use, it has little environmental pollution and security incidents, but it causes general disputes in different areas of China. Initially the government took the preparations underwater, exclude the public from the decision-making process, after several large-scale public opposition the government began to vigorously launch popular science campaigns of relevant knowledge, the public asked to participate in the decision-making process, but generally showed a desire to believe rumors rather than the government and scientists. From these PX events , we can see that the public on the one hand do not understand PX, on the other hand do not want to believe the interpretation of government and scientists, the public’s understanding of PX is not simply based on science, but also based on their experience knowledge and relationship knowledge. Based on these PX events cases in China since 2007, this paper will use the public understanding of science theory as the analytical framework, integrate of power legitimacy theory, risk society theory, trying to answer the following questions: First, how science become the cornerstone of the legitimacy of the government; second, why the authority of science is questioned by the public; third, how the public transform from the scientific passive recipients to scientific active participants.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Influencing policies through science communication

Author: Manon Knapen – University of Otago, New Zealand

Co-author: Fabien Medvecky – University of Otago

Homeopathy is an alternative medicine whose efficacy is subject to controversies due to the lack of peer-reviewed studies. Indeed, a 2015 systematic review by the Australian NHMRC (among others) concluded that there is no evidence that homeopathic treatments are more effective than the placebo effect.

Despite the absence of evidence behind the efficacy of homeopathic remedies, there is an increasing number of users worldwide. The central concern with the increasing use of homeopathic remedies is the risk that individuals with serious or life-threatening illnesses will forego effective treatment from conventional medicine.

Drawing on interviews and a national survey, this paper provides an insight into homeopathy users’ perception of the scientific basis of homeopathy. This provides a deeper understating of what homeopathy users take homeopathy to be and what the term ‘scientific’ means to them, how they access and assess information about homeopathy, and how trust is formed around the efficacy of this form of treatment.

Understanding why homeopathy users choose to use homeopathic remedies despite the lack of scientific evidence will help develop better strategies for communicating the implications of using homeopathy. This work could potentially be extended to other alternative medicines where similar risks to public health are present.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Influencing policies through science communication

Author: Liesbeth de Bakker – Utrecht University, Netherlands

Co-authors:
Ayelet Baram-Tsabari – Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
Dacia Herbulock – Science Media Centre (NZ) – Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Lotta Tomasson – Vetenskap & Allmanhet, Sweden
Caroline Wehrmann – Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

In this session, we will discuss how challenges and opportunities in science communication can be met with innovative tools, which share a deep commitment to dialogue and audience-centered techniques. Five stories will be shared as a basis for the following group discussions.

Many scientists struggle to make their stories accessible to a general audience. Now they can rely on the free of charge and scientist-friendly De-Jargonizer, which is hosted at scienceandpublic.com. It will suggest what vocabulary to avoid while interacting with the public.

True and profound interaction with your audience is hard to achieve. Scientists in Sweden can now use the online – Toolbox for Science Communication (scicommtoolbox.se) – for inspiration, methods and support in engaging with society.

What is actually going in public discourse? In the Dutch Teaching and Learning Lab, cameras and microphones enable researchers to observe and study in detail multiple aspects of interactions and group dynamics in science dialogue.

In New Zealand a new “micro” training format for interactive communication is developed. It targets hard-to-reach scientists who are less inclined to seek out science communication training. It offers brief, intensive feedback sessions with individuals during scientific conferences, breaking down entrenched attitudes about who needs this training and why.

As science stories increasingly are being based on complex problems, we explain how practitioners, science communication experts and students analyze those complex problems together and develop strategies and tools to find solutions in Dutch ‘C-labs’.

After short presentations the round table will proceed into group discussions. There participants can deepen their understanding of the case they are most interested in, and hear about the pitfalls and challenges. In a plenary wrap-up we will report about the lessons learned.

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Teaching science communication