Does the big natural science metanarrative exist?
Author: Markéta Hrabánková – Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Does the big natural science metanarrative exist? Are there any trends in publicity, what topics are journalists interested in and the public consumes? Media content as a way of defining of the Czech natural sciences.
Science communication is a wide communication field which can be differently perceived and practiced country from country. Narration and storytelling are crucial pillars of science communication from practical as well as theoretical point of view. This work is focused on the science communication practiced in the Czech Republic and its reflection in Czech media landscape. The main research questions are: Do any trends exist in media publicity of natural sciences in the Czech Republic? Is it possible to discover any specific topics/stories repeatedly used by media? Among others this paper describes the Czech media landscape and media opportunities for the topic of science. This knowledge supports the research goal – the effort to find out the way how are the natural sciences presented through chosen Czech media. Main research method was quantitative content analysis aimed at investigating potentially existing publicity trends as well as most often media topics. Qualitative narrative analysis was chosen as a method whose objective was among others to give an answer on the third research question: Do the natural sciences have their own big metanarrative or is this term just a relic of the narratology? Detailed reading of generated media contents leads us to an existing narratives displayed by media which resulted in a statement about existence or nonexistence of the big natural sciences metanarrative. Findings of this paper can be transferred to the practice of science communication of variable natural science institutions as well as scientists. They have a potential to support an efficacy and attractivity of content presenting science to a wider audience.
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Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Applying science communication research to practice