The landscape of European science communication: A field in transformation?

You are here: / Davies S

The landscape of European science communication: A field in transformation?

Author: Sarah Davies – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Co-authors:

  • Joseph Roche – Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
  • Rebecca Wells – City University of London, United Kingdom
  • Fabiana Zollo – Università Ca, Italy

This panel seeks to open a conversation about the status of scholarship and practice in science communication across Europe today. Based on research carried out for the European-funded project QUEST, which explores and tests ideas about quality in science communication and which runs from 2019-2021, it showcases work on the contemporary norms of science communication practice and on the research landscape as a whole. This work focuses on four areas: science communication scholarship (Davies); contemporary science journalism (Wells); social media practice (Zolla et al); and science museum practice (Roche et al). By providing a snapshot of European norms, practices, challenges, and concerns in each of these areas, the panel will open up discussion about the overall landscape of European science communication. What is the ‘state of the art’ in public communication of science? Are there shared challenges and concerns across Europe and across formats? And does it even make sense to talk about ‘science communication’ as a coherent set of activities and knowledge at all?

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

Presentation type: Linked papers
Theme: Transformation

Science communication for social change: What does STS have to offer?

Author: Sarah Davies – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Co-authors:

  • Ulrike Felt – University of Vienna, Austria
  • Rhian Salmon – Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand
  • Melanie Smallman – University College London, United Kingdom

Over the past decades Science and Technology Studies (STS) has had an important, though contested, impact on science communication research and practice. Concepts such as the ‘deficit model’, public engagement, or co-production (Irwin & Wynne 1996; Jasanoff 2004; Wilsdon & Willis 2004) have been developed by STS researchers and taken up within science communication, substantially shaping the ideas and norms of the field. At the same time, STS interactions with practice and practitioners in communication and policy have often been uncomfortable or fraught with misunderstanding (see, e.g., Balmer et al 2015).

In this roundtable we wish to open up a discussion as to what, specifically, STS can offer science communication teaching, research, and practice. Our aim is to explore how STS knowledge can be productively mobilised to improve science communication – that is, to help work towards science communication that actively aims for and helps achieve positive social change. Three short presentations will relate how the speakers use STS ideas in their science communication oriented research (Felt), teaching (Smallman), and public and policy engagement activities (Salmon). The emphasis will be on the value of (particular) aspects of STS in specific contexts, and on how these aspects can be put to work in practice. The session will then open up to a moderated discussion involving everyone present, examining such questions as: what are the most productive and useful strands of STS work for science communication? What can engaging with STS scholarship look and feel like? And where are STS ideas currently under-utilised, within the context of promoting science communication for social change?

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

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Transformation

Science communication as culture: Entertainment, interaction, and emotion

Author: Sarah Davies – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Co-authors:
Megan Halpern – Michigan State University
Maja Horst – University of Copenhagen
David Kirby – University of Manchester
Bruce Lewenstein – Cornell University

For several decades, science communication researchers have cautioned scientists against deficit thinking—the idea that providing information about science will straightforwardly ensure public appreciation of science. Instead, scientists and science communicators have been encouraged to embrace public engagement with science (PES), which brings with it a host of best practices, ranging from storytelling and humour to interactive exhibits to citizen deliberation.

This roundtable discusses and interrogates these developments, focusing on the increasingly dominant sense that science communication is not external to (popular) culture and wider consumption of entertainment media, but is an important part of it. Its starting point is that we should understand science communication not as a process of sharing information, but as a space of collective meaning-making. As such, the discussion will explore what it means to understand science communication as culture, and how science communication practices are being articulated in different popular culture formats.

Participants in the roundtable will briefly present work, and raise questions, around the material, emotional, cultural, and experiential aspects of science communication. This will include, for instance, the ways in which the scientific community has started employing entertainment media as vehicles for science communication, how an interactive installation was used to engage publics in discussions about the social responsibility of science, and the notion of the ’emotional labour’ of public communication. These provocations will be used to trigger a general discussion of what it means to plan, practice and analyse science communication as culture.

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

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Building a theoretical basis for science communication

Contact

The Network for the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST Network) is an organisation that promotes discussion on the theory and practice of communicating science, and of public discourses about science and technology and their role in society.

Email: admin@pcst.network
Web: www.pcst.network

Incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Registered number AO5352.

Terms and conditions  ·  Privacy policy
Disclaimer  ·  Copyright  ·  Sitemap

Copyright © PCST

Connect

Join

PCST is the an active and influential international academic and professional organisation in the field of science communication.

➔ Become a member

Discuss

Our email discussion list is free for everyone to join and has an international audience of over 2000 subscribers.

➔ Join the discussion list

Partners

PCST Network has co-operation agreements with the following international organisations:

EUSEA
European Science Engagement Association

IECA
International Environmental Communication Association

RedPOP
Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Popularisation of Science and Technology