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Filter by keyword: Science communication: theory and models

Publications including this keyword are listed below.

176 publications found

Sep 02, 2024 Article
Are we on the right path? Insights from Brazilian universities on monitoring and evaluation of Public Communication of Science and Technology in the digital environment

by Cibele Maria Garcia de Aguiar, Sergio Luiz Monteiro Salles Filho, Sérgio Parreiras Pereira and Fernando Antonio Basile Colugnati

This study addresses the perception of theoretical models and the application of evaluation indicators in the context of Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) within the digital environment of Brazilian federal universities. The model under validation was built based on the ideal types, presenting 26 indicators for monitoring and assessment. The results of a survey applied to communication managers in these institutions indicate the higher relevance of Type 1 indicators (Inform), with some institutions adopting Type 2 (Engage) indicators and, less frequently, Type 3 (Participate) indicators. Insufficient training in social media leads to platform-dependent evaluation. Despite being considered relevant, consistent monitoring remains irregular and is secondary in PCST programs.

Volume 23 • Issue 06 • 2024

Aug 05, 2024 Article
Metaphors of communication professionals in higher education: between the trivial and significant

by Hogne Lerøy Sataøen, Daniel Lövgren and Simon Neby

This study explores the evolving, however also “messy”, role of communication professionals in higher education institutions (HEIs), who are involved in organizational science communication. Despite substantial growth and professionalization within HEIs' communication departments, limited research delves into these professionals' own perspectives and their self-understanding. Our investigation employs a metaphors-in-use perspective, through 26 interviews in ten Scandinavian HEIs. The paper contributes to the research on organizational science communication by unraveling the metaphors used by communication professionals: the salesman, the marketplace-facilitator, the police, the missionary, the storyteller, and the overhead-cost, gaining an understanding of how communication professionals perceive their own role.

Volume 23 • Issue 05 • 2024

Jul 15, 2024 Article
Science journalism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: news sources engagement and [lack of] science accountability

by Abdullah Alhuntushi and Jairo Lugo-Ocando

In this article we explore normative professional expectations around science journalists in Saudi Arabia (KSA) and how news reporters do access, engage with, and use news sources. Against broader and more universal normative expectations, we found that journalists in that country used a low diversity of sources in science news reporting and depended on official and public relations sources. These findings point to a current lack of criticality in science media reporting in KSA and limited ability for media to hold science to account. In so doing, we offer explanations for the divergence and gaps.

Volume 23 • Issue 05 • 2024

Jul 08, 2024 Article
Exploring the behavioral mechanisms of Chinese scientists' public engagement with science based on an integrative model

by Yang Li and Lijun Zhu

Based on self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior, this study explored the predictors and behavioral mechanisms associated with Chinese scientists' public engagement with science. The results indicated that scientists' participation was associated with their levels of perceived autonomy, their attitudes toward participation and the media, subjective norms, perceived policies, their own efficacy, specific facilitating conditions, habits related to communication, and their willingness to engage. Under different levels of autonomy, these indicators had different association with scientists' willingness to engage and their reported participation in science communication activities. As levels of controlled motivation (or external requirement to communicate) increased, more negative effects related to willingness to participate or self-reported participation were identified, and amotivation (a lack of motivation) had a direct negative association with participation. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Volume 23 • Issue 05 • 2024

Jun 03, 2024 Essay
Scientific temper: towards an alternate model of science-society relationships

by Siddharth Kankaria and Anwesha Chakraborty

Scientific temper, a mainstay in Indian science policies and science communication/education programmes, conceptualises citizens as scientifically conscious and powerful agents that approach societal issues with a rational and critical mind rather than taking refuge in religious, superstitious and pseudoscientific worldviews. Our essay provides a brief history of this term and compares it with existing science communication models to demonstrate how, despite sharing commonalities, it is distinct from models like deficit, dialogue, and participation. We elucidate how scientific temper fosters critical features like a process-oriented approach, reflexivity, democratisation of scientific expertise and being a potential tool for decolonisation. Lastly, we propose scientific temper as an alternate framework for democratising knowledge-making and -sharing, building an engaged deliberative citizenry, and studying science-society relationships overall.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

Jun 03, 2024 Essay
Fugitive publics: sex, sexuality, and science communication

by Chase Ledin

This article attends to the absences and silences of sexual identity and knowledge in science communication scholarship. It locates identitarian debates within this scholarship and utilises queer theory to encourage a shift towards a post-identitarian approach to conceptualising sex (as a social act) in science communication. In this way, this article advocates for a queer science communication that critically examines normative identities, practices, institutions, and policies, and makes room for subjugated knowledges within science communication theory and practice.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

Jun 03, 2024 Essay
Clashing epistemologies and contrasting injustice: an Aotearoa/ New Zealand case

by Marie McEntee, Mark Harvey and Fabien Medvecky

How, as researchers, do we recognise and address the implicit biases when engaging across multiple knowledge ecologies. In this paper, we consider the way historical and epistemic justice and injustice plays into our knowledge making when dealing with a specific issue: forest biosecurity. Specifically, we focus on the Aotearoa New Zealand context where knowledge making has been, and still is, dominated by a western paradigm, but where there is increasing discussion on mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) as a valid and valuable form of knowing. Drawing on the experiences of a transdisciplinary research programme that sought to examine the human dimensions of biosecurity aspects of the plant pathogens kauri dieback and myrtle rust, we approach our original question using the theoretical concept of epistemic injustice and draw on our experiences as a way to highlight instances and forms of epistemic injustice in the science-society relationship. We argue that the division of epistemic labour (into fields, disciplines, etc), and the ranking and assigning of relative epistemic credibility based on this division is a fundamental part of the western knowledge ecology which creates the necessary conditions for specific and potent forms of epistemic injustice. We contrast this by discussing how other knowledge ecologies, specifically mātauranga Māori, comfortably engages with a variety of knowledge and knowers and discuss the possibilities other knowledge ecologies offer.

Volume 23 • Issue 04 • 2024 • Special Issue: Science communication for social justice

May 06, 2024 Article
Journalists and scientists together: the public problem of science disinformation in Brazil

by Fábio Henrique Pereira and Raphael Sandes de Oliveira

This article analyzes the public problem of scientific disinformation in the Brazilian media covering the Covid-19 pandemic. A content analysis of 226 articles addressing disinformation as a problem was conducted in a quality newspaper (“Folha de S. Paulo”), a popular website (Metrópoles) and a science journalism magazine (“Pesquisa Fapesp”). The results suggest that the public debate has focused on spreading fake news during the Pandemic and its negative impact on public health. In addition, two opposing discourses, one populist and the other based on the scientific community and institutional normality, structured the public problem of science and disinformation in Brazil.

Volume 23 • Issue 03 • 2024

Apr 29, 2024 Article
Standards for science communication in extended and virtual reality: a model for XR/VR based on London Charter and Seville Principles

by Jose Luis Rubio Tamayo, Daniel Lewis Wuebben and Manuel Gertrudix

Videos featuring research results, laboratory tutorials, and online webinars are fundamental tools for disseminating science and boosting scientific impact. However, extended reality (XR) video technologies, which include virtual reality (VR), represent new challenges for scientists and science communicators. XR and VR can enhance, bend, or distort the reality surrounding scientific facts. The London Charter and Seville Principles are standards for computer-based visualization and reconstruction in a virtual reproduction of heritage sites and research in domains such as archaeology. Here, we develop a similar set of standards for the representation of scientific results in XR and VR and clarify the use of implicit XR and VR elements such as storytelling, setting, agency, interactivity, and other factors. Finally, the authors propose a framework XR/VR Model of Science Representation and Communication, derived from the context and other frameworks for representing information in virtual environments.

Volume 23 • Issue 03 • 2024

Apr 24, 2024 Essay
Studying science in pop culture through textual analysis. An introduction to examining science in visual texts — Street art, comics and (animated) film

by Anna-Sophie Jürgens, Lucy Darragh, Paul Peace, Rita Agha, John Noel Viana and Isabel Richards

Textual analysis is a commonly-used qualitative method for analysing and interpreting cultural texts. This approach elicits how representations occur, their underlying assumptions and how they come to have meaning. Despite the popularity and utility of textual analysis, its interpretive and theoretical strategies are not comprehensively described in science communication research. To fill this gap and clarify how textual analysis can be used to unpack the cultural meanings and representation of science in visual texts — images, comics and films — the authors analyse and discuss four environmentally-themed scholarly articles that apply textual analysis. This showcases the value of textual analysis in investigating and understanding the relationships between pop culture and science, demystifying it for science communication students and researchers.

Volume 23 • Issue 03 • 2024