200 Words
Dr Joan Leach, Editor of Social Epistemology
Both study and produce communication…what do I do?
Media. The very word conjures bias, distortion, cliché, controversy, artifice, a play of superficial words and shallow surfaces. Mediation, on the other hand, suggests a process, meeting somewhere, perhaps, for a bit of negotiation. I have thought that communication would have that meaning, with the connotations of community, common, and even communion.
But, when I say that I study science communication, I am usually told ‘good luck—those scientists sure need to get better at it.’ I tried emphasizing the persuasive context of much contemporary science but my description of my research area as ‘the rhetoric of science’ was met with raised eyebrows and quizzical expressions.
I tried to emphasize the audience and described my work as ‘the public understanding of science’, and maybe it was the acronym (PUS), but many have just shrugged and said wryly, ‘it should be the public misunderstanding of science’ (is PMS a better acronym?) or the ‘scientific misunderstanding of the public’. So, instead of encouraging scientists/technologists/humanists/critics to join me in engaging the media, in communicating, in rhetorical analysis, or even in mutual understanding, I would like to invite interested others to engage in a bit of knowledge mediation.
Let us meet somewhere, even a figurative place like a journal or a text, and begin a bit of negotiation about the meanings of contemporary science, technology and engineering.