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Date of publication Jul 08, 2026 Category: Commentary

Walking the line: balancing benefits of public engagement against the risks of harassment and attack

by Jana Laura Egelhofer , Mr Niels G. Mede , Fabien Medvecky , Dr Thomas James Carruthers , Alice Fleerackers , Miguel Garcia-Guerrero , Mr Bernard Okebe

Harassment, political interference, and violence against science communication are on the rise and pose considerable challenges for scientists, journalists, communicators, and institutions. In this commentary, we — an international group of researchers and practitioners — reflect on how scientists, science communicators and their institutions can balance the increased demand for meaningful public engagement while also appropriately responding to escalating harms of backlash. Drawing on existing literature and lived experience, we interrogate the consequences of attacks on science communication and review available support structures for scientists and practitioners. We propose ways to improve preparedness for and responses to public and political backlash, while considering the challenge of mitigating harassment without silencing valuable public feedback. In doing so, we aim to contribute to a resilient environment for scientists and communicators engaging with publics and to promote a more constructive discourse on socially contested issues in science and technology.

Volume 25Issue 42026
Date of publication Jul 08, 2026 Category: Commentary

EDITORIAL: Scholars Under Attack — Navigating the dark side of public engagement and science communication in a politicised (online) environment

by Birte Fähnrich , Carla Almeida , Clemens Dietrich Blümel , Mr Daniel Edler , Benedikt Fecher , Mr Niels G. Mede , Nataliia Sokolovska

Hostility towards science has emerged as a significant challenge in contemporary science communication, particularly in increasingly politicised and digitally mediated public environments. Scholars across diverse disciplines are confronted with harassment, delegitimisation, political interference, disinformation, and personal attacks, especially when engaging in public communication. This editorial introduces the JCOM commentary set “Scholars Under Attack” and situates hostility towards science within broader transformations of media ecosystems, political polarisation, and contested epistemic authority. The article argues that current debates remain conceptually fragmented and empirically underdeveloped, with limited comparative and longitudinal evidence regarding the scope, forms, and consequences of hostility directed at researchers. To address these gaps, the editorial proposes a working definition of hostility towards science as practices, discourses, and actions that undermine the authority, credibility, or integrity of scientific actors, knowledge, and institutions in politicised public arenas. The commentary set brings together interdisciplinary and international perspectives from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Australia, highlighting how experiences of hostility vary across political systems, institutional contexts, disciplines, and social identities. The contributions examine online harassment, gendered hostility, misinformation, academic freedom, institutional shortcomings, and the paradoxical dynamics of visibility in digital communication. Collectively, they emphasise the need for more systematic empirical research, stronger institutional support structures, and nuanced conceptual approaches that distinguish hostility from legitimate critique while recognising the democratic importance of public science communication.

Walking the line: balancing benefits of public engagement against the risks of harassment and attack
by Jana Laura Egelhofer, Mr Niels G. Mede, Fabien Medvecky, Dr Thomas James Carruthers, Alice Fleerackers, Miguel Garcia-Guerrero and Mr Bernard Okebe

The erosion of academic freedom in Venezuela: international human rights law, authoritarian practice, and implications for knowledge communication
by Mr Ricardo Villalobos Fontalvo and Dr David Gomez Gamboa

The price of speaking out: European landscape of online hate and harassment
by Atte Oksanen

Patterns of attacks against scholars in Germany: controversial topics as contexts and accelerators of science hostility
by Clemens Dietrich Blümel and Ennio Noél Brandt

Beyond incivility: supporting scientists' efforts to correct misinformation online
by Ashley A. Anderson, Nicole Kelp and Sera Choi

From visibility to vulnerability: how women scientists face gendered hostility in science communication
by Dr Maider Eizmendi Iraola and Mr Simón Peña-Fernandez

The engagement paradox: how negative feedback shapes visibility-oriented science communication on TikTok
by Tinca Lukan and Benedikt Fecher

Scientists under fire: lessons from the Omicron case
by Mrs Kim Darley Waddilove, Nothando Ngwenya and Marina Joubert

Beyond expectation: institutional and structural shortfalls in supporting scholars engaged in science communication
by Josephine B. Schmitt and Sabine Reich

Volume 25Issue 42026
Date of publication Dec 16, 2024 Category: Article

Trust in science, trust in ChatGPT? How Germans think about generative AI as a source in science communication

by Mike S. Schäfer , Bastian Kremer , Niels G. Mede , Liliann Fischer

Generative AI like ChatGPT has been diagnosed to fundamentally impact different realms of life. This includes science communication, where GenAI tools are becoming important sources of science-related content for many people. This raises the question of whether people trust GenAI as a source in this field, a question that has not been answered sufficiently yet. Adapting a model developed by Roberts et al. [2013] and utilizing survey data from the German Science Barometer 2023, we find that Germans are rather sceptical about and do not strongly trust GenAI in science communication. Structural equation modelling shows that respondents' trust in GenAI as a source in science communication is driven strongly by their general trust in science, which is largely driven by their knowledge about science and the perception that science improves quality of life.

Volume 23Issue 092024Special Issue: Public (dis)trust in science in digital media environments (Trust in science)
Date of publication Jul 04, 2022 Category: Commentary

Science communication in the face of skepticism, populism, and ignorance: what ‘Don’t Look Up’ tells us about science denial — and what it doesn’t

by Niels G. Mede

‘Don’t Look Up’ tells the story of a team of astrophysicists whose efforts to warn politicians, media makers, and the public about an apocalyptic comet impact on planet Earth are undermined by fundamental skepticism toward their expertise. On the one hand, the film offers a rich portrayal of contemporary anti-science sentiments, their societal conditions, and the media and communication ecology surrounding them. But on the other hand, ‘Don’t Look Up’ ignores and exaggerates several facets of those sentiments and the communicative settings in which they spread. This commentary analyzes this contrast through a science communication lens: it scrutinizes the (mis)representation of science denial and science communication in ‘Don’t Look Up’ — and aims to inspire further debate about portrayals of anti-science phenomena and potential remedies within popular media.

Volume 21Issue 052022

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