Science Communication 2.0
Lecture 1 - Introduction
• Science communication = the use of appropriate skills, media, activities, and dialogue to
produce one or more of the following personal responses to science: awareness, enjoyment,
interest, opinion-forming and understanding. Not just in traditional institutions, but in all
fields and social situations.
• Science communication 2.0 is a shift from deficit model to dialogue model:
Why this shift?
> Simply disseminating facts
is not particularly useful
> Science does not happen in
a social vacuum
> Science is increasingly
considered a site where
democracy is promoted and
exercised
• Why is simply disseminating facts not particularly useful?
o Biased assimilation (aanpassing): people take in information in a way that makes it
coherent with their previous position. This makes things worse sometimes and can
enhance attitude polarization
o Hard vs soft impacts: experts tend to make themselves accountable for hard impacts
(quantifiable risks → biomedical health, safety, etc.) but not for soft impacts (social,
cultural, moral), and the public is more likely to focus on soft impacts.
o Problems are often wicked
• Science deals with wicked problems: problems that are the outcome of our daily lives and
have many stakeholders involved. There Is no certainty, but the stakes are high.
o Many stakeholders are involved
o Unique but interrelated: every wicked problem is essentially unique and can be
considered to be a symptom of another problem
o Solutions to wicked problems are not true or false, but good or bad
o There is no immediate or ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem. Every
solution is a ‘one-shot operation’ since there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-
error (because every attempt counts significantly)
o Examples of wicked problems: flooding, heat stress in cities, growing measles
outbreaks
We need new science communication that considers how to best address wicked problems.
• There are different approaches to addressing wicked problems:
, o Multidisciplinary science: brings together insights from multiple disciplines to gain a
broader understanding of the issue while maintaining the disciplinary boundaries. The
goal is not to come to an integration of insights.
o Interdisciplinary science: seeks to integrate approaches, theories, and methods from
multiple disciplines more deeply. Researchers work together to create a common
framework that transcends disciplinary boundaries (deeper integration of theories,
methods and insights from different disciplines).
o Transdisciplinary science: goes beyond disciplines to develop a shared understanding
of the issue (fully transcends disciplinary boundaries). The goal is not only to
comprehensively understand the problem, but also to co-create solutions relevant and
actionable in real-world contexts.
• Skeptical people are interesting in science → they often read and engage a lot, although their
sources can be questionable. It is not like people who put their trust in scientists care more
about the big problems or feel more responsible for it.
• There are three strategies to establish credible skepticism (e.g. anti-vaccination accounts):
o Conversion (“At first I thought …”)
o Force from outside (“X made me think about …”)
o Focus on doing own research (“I looked into …”)
Article ‘Aspects about science in communication of knowledge on COVID-19’ (Maia & Santos, 2021):
• Many aspects of the Nature Of Science (NOS) are not made explicit, which adds to a mistaken view of
linear and decontextualized science.
• Dissemination of research in progress during covid gave people access to aspects seldom discussed in
scientific papers (e.g. ethics, personality of scientists, interactions amongst scientists, and economics of
science). Usually, information provided by media includes few details of the study design, do not discuss
validity and reliability, and may present unqualified evidence/justifications → raises the discussion of the
importance of scientific literacy involving the media so that people develop a broader understanding of NOS
→ science media literacy.
• Papers highlighted science as a dynamic and ongoing process, implying the existence of many uncertainties
in studies and the need for further studies.
• Knowing distinct contexts and factors that interfere in the production of science and being aware of the
existing limitations is important for functional scientific literacy.
Article ‘Science communication demands a critical approach that centers inclusion’ (Canfield, 2020):
• Researchers and practitioners are perpetuating inequities by default.
• ISC (inclusive science communication) can function as a critical approach that embodies an intentional
investment in supporting and recognizing inclusion, equity, and intersectionality.
• More transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral convenings are needed to build an ISC community of practice.
, Notes from video about obesity:
- If you take away people’s right to choose, you degrade their ability to choose because people get used to not
making choices for themselves.
- In times of crises people think “you have to do something, anything will do” which forms the perfect
conditions for ill-advised and silly policies.
- Instead of making the choices for people, you can provide tools for people to make better informed choices.
However, studies have shown that e.g. food health ratings do not make a difference in the average weight.
- The fat acceptance movement thinks that the existing links between health conditions and obesity are being
exaggerated and manipulated (amongst others because of funding).
- If you publicly critique a child for their weight, a parent has fat-hatred views, or they the child is teased for
being different, the child is more likely to end up in eating disorder territory.
- You get different medical treatment depending on how you look → if you lost weight due to an eating
disorder but you’re still fat, you will not be treated as someone with an eating disorder and will instead be
praised for having lost weight instead of getting eating disorder treatment.
- Privilege also plays a role, for example how accessible is food in your area, and how accessible is it for your
wallet? Do you have time to really consider how healthy your choices are, or time to go to the gym? (e.g. a
single mother with two jobs does not).
- We are more inactive than ever before, due to which we do not burn the gained calories.
- Strategy: encourage people to seek the pleasure out of fresh food, since fresh food is the best/healthiest.
