Science! You’ll never guess what happened next

Author: Shaun Hendy – Te Pūnaha Matatini, New Zealand

Co-authors:
Kate Hannah – Te Pūnaha Matatini, University of Auckland
Rebecca Priestley – Te Pūnaha Matatini, Victoria University of Wellington

Can scientific knowledge persist in a post-truth world? In this talk, we discuss how the strengths and weaknesses of science’s distinctive values and norms play out in the modern media landscape. Scientific universalism, for example, holds that the validity of scientific claims does not depend on the status or identity of the claimant. This is a highly prized ideal, even if science fails to live up to it in practise. Yet a similar form of universalism operates on social media – any user is able to generate content – and it is apparent that this allows misinformation as well as information to propagate. To adapt to this environment, science will have to adopt a more reflexive stance towards its values, norms, and practises. Identity, values, and world-view matter more than ever in modern communications, and to adapt to this, we argue that the scientific community must embrace a more nuanced and transdisciplinary understanding of the scientific process.

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

Presentation type: Speakers’ corner
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Building a theoretical basis for science communication