How to innovate in science communication in complex societies

Author: Bernard Schiele – UQAM Montreal, Canada

If social complexity is proportional to the number of interactions within a given society, ours is undoubtedly complex. In our complex societies, traditional modes of science diffusion are not as effective as we would like them to be as a result of at least two self-reinforcing factors: first, circulating information, true or false, validated or not, is always susceptible of emerging in public discourse, which we call the mirror effect; second, the sciences continue to develop, giving birth to new fields of specialty, further widening the gap, not only between scientists and laypersons, but also between researchers themselves, which we call the archipelago effect. Therefore, we must invent new modes of knowledge diffusion, in line with the redistribution of interrelations between actors and social groups, the development of means of communication, and the progress of knowledge. This talk will present some of the new modes of science communication, or knowledge diffusion, that are being developed and experimented today to meet the challenges of our modernity.

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