Posts

On the trail of 19th century science performers: the case of L. K. Maju

By Dulce da Rocha Gonçalves Science performers played a significant role in science communication during the nineteenth century: they performed live for different audiences, in a variety of settings, often hauling science and technology experiments and demonstrations throughout the territory. Some scientific performers used the live event of the stage performance as a way to communicate their own

Jargon in science communication research and practice

By Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Orli Wolfson, Elad SegevToo basic to mention, a truism too dull to repeat, jargon is still one of the greatest hurdles to effective science communication. Despite all the emphasis on dialogue and participatory actions, it's almost impossible for readers to understand a text if the vocabulary is more akin to a foreign language. With COVID-19 dictating our movements and

Gender harassment can and does, affect science popularization behaviors

BY by Lisa McDonald, Chantal Barriault, and Thomas MerrittIn a pilot study conducted in the spring of 2018, a mixed-methods online survey was used to ask science popularizers how gender harassment influences the way they communicate science to the public. Popularizers reported that gender harassment caused the science popularization field to increasingly strive for gender inclusivity in the

Networking to grow science communication as a field of teaching

by Dr Marina Joubert & Dr Luisa MassaraniA global network of science communication teachers could advance the quality of Master’s and PhD teaching in the field by creating an essential core curriculum and facilitating the meaningful sharing of course materials. Cross-country exchange programmes (online or face-to-face) could add significant value for students and lead to long-term research

Dutch citizens and COVID-19

By Mark Bos PhD & Niels Couvreur In recent days, weeks and months, there has been ample attention to how Europeans respond to the COVID-19 crisis. See for example recent publications from Italy and Germany. This blog post provides an overview of the public perceptions of Dutch citizens on how the COVID-19 crisis is communicated and managed. The research was performed late April and the instrument

“The people have had enough of experts!” How to understand populist challenges to science

By Niels G. Mede Populists around the globe accuse political elites of ignoring the will of ‘the common people’. Oftentimes, however, they also bash academic elites – scientists, experts, and other epistemic authorities – for producing knowledge that is allegedly out of touch and useless, does not suit practical needs, and may contradict what ‘ordinary folks’ think. Such views have been echoed by

Italian Citizens and Covid-19: One Month Later – April 2020

Scared, Supportive and Confident in Science (but a little confused by expert communication) Trends and changes in the perception of the pandemic: the new data from the Science in Society Monitorby Massimiano Bucchi and Barbara SaracinoOne month after the first survey by the Science in Society Monitor, the percentage of those undermining the Covid-19 threat decreases down to 4%. The more and more