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Science in the Public Sphere: Representation, Mediation, Interpretation

Thu, September 5, 9:45 to 11:15am, Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Floor: Eight, Mid-City

Abstract

Conventional discussions of science communication tend to focus on the relationship between two groups: scientists and citizens. This panel pays closer attention to those who serve as intermediaries in the relationship, such as educators, journalists, and museum staff. Challenges abound for these intermediaries. For example, how might teachers address students’ preconceived ideas about evolution when they are likely to be discredited by scientists, even as they gain popularity in the public realm due to the powerful images associated with them? Here, interventions require more than presenting alternative arguments and facts: they involve the visual (re)construction of science. Reporting on disasters can be a tricky task too. When an emergent epidemic paralyzes a city but the expert community is divided over the causes and cures, what is the role of the media? How do journalists help transform the expert debate into a discussion by a wider range of citizens? Perhaps less visible than media venues, museums are contested sites too. What opportunities and challenges do the museum staff find when museums pursue public engagement and public history? How might the staff address the tension between the tradition of research museum and the more recent paradigm of science center as they try to redefine the role of science museums? Together, contributions to the panel present an enlarged view of the scientific community, directing our attention to contested science in the everyday world.

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