1887

Learning from History to Increase Positive Public Reception and Social Value Alignment of Evidence-Based Science Communication

    Author: Jason A. Tetro1,*
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    Affiliations: 1: College of Biological Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
    AUTHOR AND ARTICLE INFORMATION AUTHOR AND ARTICLE INFORMATION
    • Received 17 November 2017 Accepted 06 December 2017 Published 30 March 2018
    • ©2018 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology.

    • [open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
    • †Supplemental materials available at http://asmscience.org/jmbe
    • *Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dean’s Office, College of Biological Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada. Phone: 519-824-4120, x 52730. E-mail: [email protected].
    Source: J. Microbiol. Biol. Educ. March 2018 vol. 19 no. 1 doi:10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1532
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    Abstract:

    For effective science communication, three general objectives should be taken into consideration: 1) accurate conveyance of the scientific evidence; 2) warm public reception of the communicator; and 3) alignment of the information with social values. An examination of both successful and failed science communication efforts over the course of history can reveal strategies to better meet these objectives. This article looks back at influential moments of science communication over the past two millennia in the context of the objectives and, using lessons learned from these events as a guide, introduces a five-element approach to improve the potential for attaining the objectives.

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2018-03-30
2021-04-22

Abstract:

For effective science communication, three general objectives should be taken into consideration: 1) accurate conveyance of the scientific evidence; 2) warm public reception of the communicator; and 3) alignment of the information with social values. An examination of both successful and failed science communication efforts over the course of history can reveal strategies to better meet these objectives. This article looks back at influential moments of science communication over the past two millennia in the context of the objectives and, using lessons learned from these events as a guide, introduces a five-element approach to improve the potential for attaining the objectives.

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Author and Article Information

  • Received 17 November 2017 Accepted 06 December 2017 Published 30 March 2018
  • ©2018 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology.

  • [open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
  • †Supplemental materials available at http://asmscience.org/jmbe
  • *Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dean’s Office, College of Biological Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada. Phone: 519-824-4120, x 52730. E-mail: [email protected].

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