Science Communication - I: Digital Media

Abstract

Public communication of science is a key mechanism by which scientific knowledge is mediated, negotiated, and transformed. Over the past decades, STS research has outlined the ways in which science and society are coproduced through communication activities, catalysed a shift towards dialogue and engagement in science communication practice, and itself been opened up to public audiences through experimental forms of making and doing.

This open stream invites paper proposals that analyse or reflect upon public science communication. We understand this broadly, as “organized, explicit, and intended actions that aim to communicate scientific knowledge, methodology, processes, or practices in settings where non-scientists are a recognized part of the audiences” (Horst et al 2016, 883). Science communication therefore includes, for instance, science in museums, science fairs, events, and festivals, popular science writing, science blogging, sci­art activities, university and lab open days, news media, digital and social media, and science comedy. We invite critical analysis of these activities. For example, papers might offer reflections on the role science communication plays in the democratisation of science, analyses of the constitution of publics and knowledges within particular science communication activities, discussion of the affective regimes of science in public, or accounts of experimental practice. In particular, any analysis that showcases how science communication is innovated, interrupted, and regenerated is welcomed. The panel will thus use the methodologies and concerns of STS to reflect upon the problems, potential and practice of contemporary science communication.

Chair

• Noriko Hara, Indiana University

Individual Presentations

• Increasing Public Engagement with Science using Science-Experience (SX) Measurements - Eduardo Nevarez, University Of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Investigating Mediated Pubic Engagement with Science on the “Science” Subreddit: From the Participants’ Perspective - Noriko Hara, Indiana University; Clinton Daniel McKay, Indiana University

• Mind Maps: Mapping the Web Vision of Neuroplasticity - Rod M Abhari, University of Wisconsin

• Science Blogs as Critique: Building Public Identities in the Field of Translational Research - Barbara Hendriks, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies; Martin Reinhart, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Session Organizer

• Sarah Davies, University of Copenhagen