Despite the pandemic, RETHINK has had a very fruitful year. The meeting format had to change to online, but it still attracted many science communication professionals ready to engage in important discussions on the future of science communication. It focused on current topics, such as how people make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic, how to build better connections and trust between scientists and society and how to improve the quality of these interactions. Below you will find some highlights from the last months.
JCOM Special Issue
We are pleased to announce the publication of the first JCOM Special Issue on “Re-examining Science Communication: models, perspectives, institutions.” This JCOM special issue aims to rethink science communication considering its ever-changing landscape, building on the European Commission’s focus on science communication within the “Science with and for Society” (SwafS) Work Programme. It is a joint initiative of three EU-funded projects: RETHINK, CONCISE and QUEST.
Open access to the accepted papers here
First video as part of the RETHINK Resources toolbox
The RETHINK project is dedicated to researching and improving the complex interdependencies of science and society. As part of this research, we are looking at who is writing and talking about science online, whether that be scientists, PR-people, journalists, bloggers, vloggers or influencers, and how they are doing it. We’re also interested in how members of the public who aren’t experts in science make sense of the science they read or hear about online. And we are trying to figure out whether there is “good” (e.g. trustworthy, reliable and easy to understand) and “bad” (the opposite) science communication and how its quality can be improved.
To make our research results accessible in a simple and easy-to-understand way, we are producing three short videos and invite you to watch the first one: Assessing quality of science communication online. With the science communication landscape changing tremendously, we need to rethink the ways in which we assess quality of science communication online. The video presents results of a study on science communication quality conducted within the RETHINK project.
Latest outcomes in terms of deliverables: