Science Blogs as Critique: Building Public Identities in the Field of Translational Research

• In Event: Science Communication - I: Digital Media

Abstract

Clinician scientists are perceived as pivotal figures in the field of translational research as they seem to be able to close the gap between biomedical research and medical practice. Although the discourse on translational research is favorable to clinician scientists, their role within it and their view of themselves has received little attention. Studies analyzing the clinician scientist role point to a lack of professional development: numbers of active clinician scientists are still low, training and funding programs are highly diverse in international as well as national contexts (e.g. in Germany), and a stable description of who is and who can be a clinician scientist is missing. In order to shed light on the identity construction of clinician scientists, we analyze science blogs for the view of clinician scientists on translational research. By drawing on surveillance studies and the pragmatic sociology of critique we examine the potential for critique of science blogs. From the blogging selves represented in science blogs we find that clinician scientists are trapped in a fundamental dilemma of being torn between the two worlds of clinic and research. Although the discourse on translational research is in support of clinician scientists, it intensifies this dilemma even further. As a result, the communication on blogs from clinician scientists is emotionally charged with feelings of contradiction, unpredictability, and skepticism. These feelings undergird a critical agenda that shows indignation as the result of being a pivotal figure in the discourse on translational research. Our work thus contributes to debates at the intersection of science communication, professional identities, and neopragmatic accounts of critical capacities.

Authors

• Barbara Hendriks, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies

• Martin Reinhart, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin