Contextual science communication in marine biotechnology: historical survey of publications in traditional and digital media

Abstract

Knowledge about the structure and operation of science communication (SC) in traditional and digital media is of upmost interest to strengthen the bridge between science and society. Nowadays, the internet has weakened the trust and credit that allowed scientific knowledge to make choices without being accountable to anyone. In front of this modern trend, science neglect and inability to include society in scientific debates allowed the return of anti-intellectualism (e.g. conspiracy theory, fake news), which led to negative changes in collective behavior, as anti-vaccination movements. Therefore, society needs a public intelligence of science or a science situated in its time and its environment. For this, it is essential to understand the context of each scientific situation (public need) before identifying the right message, its content, channel and time to ensure the effectiveness of the communication campaign. Marine biotechnology, for example, reaches the day-to-day life of the whole society by providing information, products and services based on marine organisms. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to understand how traditional and digital media achieved to disseminate this science; and then, we will be able to build more effective science communication campaigns for marine biotechnology. For this, we will investigate how traditional and digital media have communicated marine biotechnology in Portuguese using public archives (traditional media) and online platforms (digital media). We also intend to investigate the interests, needs and uses of marine science products by the population of Arraial do Cabo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) through a social survey. Finally, we will create a Startup focusing on SC products in marine biotechnology. This incubator should bring an innovative proposal to work with communication and public understanding of science under a contextual model, creating diversified scientific material on digital platforms (e.g. texts, videos, gifs, podcasts). We will seek diversified products because different structures of systematization and communication of knowledge interact with each other and provide increased engagement of the society, while also stimulate the improvement and contextualization of the work of scientists, specialists and communicators. In this way, we intend to critically analyze SC in marine biotechnology and create communication bridges, because we believe it is an essential step towards a more fair, equal, democratic and sustainable society.