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• Date of publication Jun 21, 2017 Category: Commentary

  Old media and new opportunities for a computational social science on PCST

  by Federico Neresini

  Although with some reluctance, social sciences now seem to have accepted the challenge deriving from the growing digitisation of communication and the consequent flow of data on the web. There are actually various empirical studies that use the digital traces left by the myriads of interactions that occur through social media and e-commerce platforms, and this trend also concerns the research in the PCST field. However, the opportunity offered by the digitisation of traditional mass media communication — the newspapers in particular — is much less exploited. Building on the experience of the TIPS project, this paper discusses the advantages and the limits of computational social science on PCST using newspapers as the main source of data. Some methodological issues are also addressed, in order to suggest a more aware use of such data and the several computational tools available for analysing them.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2017 Category: Editorial

  Science centres and science engagement activities as research facilities: blurring the frontiers between knowledge production and knowledge sharing

  by Matteo Merzagora

  The future challenges within science communication lie in a 'grey area' where the frontiers between production and sharing of knowledge are blurred. An area in which we can satisfy at the same time and within the same activity the autonomous interests of researchers and those of other stakeholders, including lay publics. Settings are emerging, where we can provide real contribution to scientific research and at the same time facilitate the publics in their process of hacking scientific knowledge to serve autonomously defined and often unpredictable functions. Some are linked to research institutes, others to science centres, others are precisely inbetween. This editorial explores why these special places are needed, and present some case studies, leading to the need of interpreting science culture centres as research facilities.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication Jun 21, 2017 Category: Commentary

  The shift from public science communication to public relations. The Vaxxed case

  by Davide Bennato

  Social media is restructuring the dynamics of science communication processes inside and outside the scientific world. As concerns science communication addressed to the general public, we are witnessing the advent of communication practices that are more similar to public relations than to the traditional processes of the Public Understanding of Science. By analysing the digital communication strategies implemented for the anti-vaccination documentary Vaxxed, the paper illustrates these new communication dynamics, that are both social and computational.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication Jun 01, 2017 Category: Conference Review

  Hollyweird Science ― A symposium at the 253rd Annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. San Francisco 3 & 4 April 2017

  by Erik Stengler

  Science in film is gaining attention from scientists and science communicators. Sixteen experts gathered at the 253rd Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society to explore the role and relevance of science in film. An audience of researchers, academics and students enjoyed first-hand accounts from filmmakers, science consultants and experts in science communication, who all agreed on the important impact the way science is depicted in film has on education, outreach and the relationship between science and society.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication May 18, 2017 Category: Article

  Discussing climate change online. Topics and perceptions in online climate change communication in different online public arenas

  by Ines Lörcher , Monika Taddicken

  How users discuss climate change online is one of the crucial questions (science) communication scholars address nowadays. This study contributes by approaching the issue through the theoretical concept of online public arenas. The diversity of topics and perceptions in the climate change discourse is explored by comparing different arenas. German journalistic articles and their reader comments as well as scientific expert blogs are analyzed by quantitative manual and automated content analysis (n=5,301). Findings demonstrate a larger diversity of topics and interpretations in arenas with low barriers to communication. Overall, climate change skepticism is rare, but mostly present in lay publics.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication May 09, 2017 Category: Conference Review

  Addressing the impact of the media on the gender gap in science: 2nd Commemoration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science conference review

  by Emer Emily Neenan , Áine O'Neill

  This is a conference review of the 2nd Commemoration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which had the theme Gender, Science and Sustainable Development: The Impact of Media. It was held in United Nations Headquarters, New York City, U.S.A., and a parallel event was held simultaneously in Valetta, Malta. There were 45 listed speakers from 24 countries, with a gender ratio of 2:1 in favour of women. The contribution of the media to socio-cultural barriers facing girls and women in STEM was well-illustrated. However, few actionable solutions were proposed.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication May 03, 2017 Category: Article

  Science communication as a field of research: identifying trends, challenges and gaps by analysing research papers

  by Lars Guenther , Marina Joubert

  Research in the field of science communication started emerging about 50 years ago and has since then matured as a field of academic enquiry. Early findings about research-active authors and countries reveal that scholarly activity in the field has traditionally been dominated by male authors from English-speaking countries in the West. The current study is a systematic, bibliographic analysis of a full sample of research papers that were published in the three most prominent journals in the field from 1979 to 2016. The findings reveal that early inequities remain prevalent, but also that there are indications that recent increases in research outputs and trends in authorship patterns ― for example the growth in female authorship ― are beginning to correct some of these imbalances. Furthermore, the current study verifies earlier indications that science communication research is becoming increasingly institutionalised and internationalised, as demonstrated by an upward trend in papers reflecting cross-institutional collaboration and the diversity of countries where authors are based.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication Apr 18, 2017 Category: Article

  Building the economic-public relationship: learning from science communication and science studies.

  by Fabien Medvecky , Vicki Macknight

  There is a gap between the discipline of economics and the public it is supposedly about and for. This gap is reminiscent of the divide that led to movements for the public understanding of and public engagement with the natural sciences. It is a gap in knowledge, trust, and opinions, but most of all it is a gap in engagement. In this paper we ask: What do we need to think about ― and what do we need to do ― in order to bring economics and its public into closer dialogue? At stake is engaged, critical democracy. We turn to the fields of public understanding of science and science studies for our approach, finding three themes of particular relevance: understanding, expertise, and audience. We then discuss participatory budgeting (PB) as an example of fertile ground for engagement. We argue that with an economic-engagement focus, activities such as PB could be extended into the public-economics gap and provide avenues for an economic equivalent of participatory science: a form of participatory economics.

  Volume 16 • Issue 02 • 2017

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2017 Category: Editorial

  Considering the academy: academics, public intellectuals and activism

  by Emma Weitkamp

  Reflecting on the public role of academics, this issue of JCOM includes a set of commentaries exploring public intellectuals and intellectualism. The commentaries explore the role of academics in public debates, both as bringers of facts and passion. These pieces, together with past commentaries and letters to JCOM raise interesting questions about the role of academics in public debates that are, perhaps not those usually trodden in the academic literature.

  Volume 16 • Issue 01 • 2017

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2017 Category: Commentary

  Babelfish and the peculiar symbiosis of public intellectualism and academia

  by Kylie Walker

  Arthur Dent's reluctant hitchhike through the Milky Way would not have been possible without the babelfish, which was nourished by his brain waves and in return decoded foreign languages for him. In much the same way, public intellectuals serve as science and technology academia's babelfish for the non-STEM savvy. While STEM academics continue to push back the frontiers of knowledge, public intellectuals equip the community with the knowledge we need to make big decisions, both for our own individual lives and for our society.

  Volume 16 • Issue 01 • 2017