{"id":75827,"date":"2016-08-03T22:47:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T20:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/science-communication-is-on-the-rise-and-thats-good-for-democracy-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2016-08-03T22:47:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T20:47:42","slug":"science-communication-is-on-the-rise-and-thats-good-for-democracy-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/science-communication-is-on-the-rise-and-thats-good-for-democracy-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Science communication is on the rise \u2013 and that’s good for democracy | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science communication is on the rise \u2013 and that’s good for democracy<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Science communication puts research under the microscope.<\/span> Shutterstock<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Until a few years ago the term \u201cscience communication\u201d would have been misunderstood by most people \u2013 including scientists \u2013 to mean any communication between scientists.<\/p>\n

Now countries, universities and research institutions all over the world spend big chunks of their budgets on science communication aimed at external public audiences.<\/p>\n

A mid-sized university during the 1980s would have had a lone press officer whose job was to instruct journalists about scientists\u2019 latest research achievements. Today such a university will boast a staff of six or even more professional \u201cscience communicators\u201d. They produce multimedia science press releases and sophisticated infographics. They create visually engaging research magazines. Online newsletters and social media platforms are used to share achievements with the outside world.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a sea change beyond universities, too. Science festivals and weeks abound. Mobile outreach \u2013 trucks, trains and even ships \u2013 take science exhibits to people who otherwise would never come close to laboratories. In some countries there\u2019s been a boom of popular science magazines.<\/p>\n

How did we get here? To understand this surge of activities \u2013 which involve both governments and citizens\u2019 groups \u2013 it\u2019s necessary to look back more than half a century. It\u2019s also important to untangle the motives, formats and functions of what now comes under an increasingly broad umbrella called \u201cscience communication\u201d.<\/p>\n

Back in time<\/h2>\n

The mid-1950s saw the birth of a science literacy movement in the US called \u201cPublic Understanding of Science\u201d. Americans were reeling after the USSR sent a satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. The \u201cPublic Understanding of Science\u201d initiative was designed to mobilise public support for the costly project to put a man on the moon. It was also hoped that more young high school graduates would choose to study maths, physics and engineering rather than creative writing and philosophy. This, it was believed, would help the US meet the challenges of space flight in particular and technological innovation in general.<\/p>\n

The 1970s brought controversies about the risks of nuclear power; in the 1980s people started to fear recombinant DNA and genetically modified crops. These concerns brought about a new paradigm known as \u201cPublic Engagement with Science and Technology\u201d, or PEST.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Understanding of Science\u201d had been based on the assumption that knowing more about science implied trust in and acceptance of science. PEST was based on the belief that there needed to be more of a dialogue between scientists and the public.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the PEST approach understood that involving the public in scientific and technological projects was more likely to create trust. They also knew that since it was an open-ended process, ordinary members of the public could call for alternative solutions. So the scientific-technological community was replaced in the driver\u2019s seat by the general public. That\u2019s how it should be in democratic societies.<\/p>\n

Democracy and science<\/h2>\n

Since then there\u2019s been an increasing \u201cdemocratisation\u201d of science. Governments actively promote public accounting by science in a bid to secure legitimacy for the considerable expenditures of an enterprise that receives public resources but is largely opaque to the outside observer.<\/p>\n

Of course, democratisation does not mean that ordinary laypeople now have a say about what is right in science, or what is good research and what is bad. That must remain the competence of the trained specialist, in the same way that a passenger cannot tell a pilot how to better steer his or her aircraft.<\/p>\n

But the lay public can voice an opinion about what kind of research best meets its needs. Ordinary people may pose questions to scientists that induce them to do research not suggested by their disciplinary agenda.<\/p>\n

This puts the scientific community in a position where it has to convince the public of two important things. First, that it\u2019s delivering \u201cvalue for money\u201d by doing a good job and, second, that it is responsive to the general public\u2019s needs and interests. To achieve both of these aims, scientists must communicate.<\/p>\n

Building science communicators<\/h2>\n

There are many ways and motives to communicate: from openly doing marketing, lobbying and advertising (done by public relations experts), to critically reporting (the business of journalists), to raising interest and educating (as museums or TV science shows do), to entertaining (which filmmakers and novelists do). All of these forms are perfectly legitimate, but some benefit society more than others.<\/p>\n

And at their best, they all bring science to the attention of the general public. This hopefully contributes to raising the information level of public discourse. That is why science communication is so popular \u2013 and why university-based science communication teaching and research programmes are flourishing around the world.<\/p>\n

The South African government, for instance, has set up two South African Research Chairs in Science Communication. One is located at Stellenbosch University and the other at Rhodes University. One of the first projects at Stellenbosch University, where we are based, will be to explore perceptions of science in different rural communities based on distance from or proximity to particular big science projects and science in general.<\/p>\n

An online course in science communication, attracting participants from across Africa and even further afield, has also been developed under the auspices of the Stellenbosch chair. Most of the course participants are institutional communicators or media officers at science councils or universities.<\/p>\n

Others work for nongovernmental organisations, science centres, museums and zoos. Several scientists \u2013 keen to integrate public communication into their research \u2013 are also enrolling. This online course, the first of its kind on the African continent, attracted 180 participants in 2015. More than 50 have registered for the 2016 course, which kicks off in September.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Lars Guenther receives funding from the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology together with the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (Grant Number 93097).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Marina Joubert receives funding from the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation (via the SA Research Chair in Science Communication at Stellenbosch University).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Peter Weingart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> The Conversation \u2013 Articles (AFRICA)<\/a><\/small>
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Science communication is on the rise \u2013 and that’s good for democracy: Science communication puts research under the microscope. Shutterstock Until a few years ago the term \u201cscience communication\u201d would have been misunderstood by most people \u2013 including scientists \u2013 to mean any communication between scientists. Now countries, universities and research institutions all over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[11048,8890,4666,4748,4981,2011,12112],"class_list":{"0":"post-75827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-communication","8":"tag-conversation","9":"tag-democracy","10":"tag-good","11":"tag-rise","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-thats","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}