In Science communication in times of crisis, editor Pascal Hohaus and chapter authors shed light on how scientific knowledge is transmitted to the public in times of crises. This collective volume covers copious genres and offers insights into internal and external science communication from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives.
Chapter 1 by Hohaus outlines the research context and structure of this collective volume, presenting a comprehensive account of the relationship between science communication and social crises. Chapter 2 by Martin Böhnert & Paul Reszke addresses two knowledge crises: geocentrism and climate change. They emphasize the importance of shifting from questioning the veracity of a fact to questioning the plausibility of a statement and the significance of the settings of comprehension (i.e. an individual's epistemic background for judgments) in facilitating science communication. In chapter 3, Collin Syfert examines open letters written by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) to George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations. He illustrates that by strategically capitalizing on consensus claims, these letters intentionally take a nonpartisanship stance, challenging partisan affiliations in public science communication.
Chapters 4 and 5 by Lynne Bowker and Amal Haddad Haddad discuss Covid-19-related terms. Bowker highlights the necessity of experts-to-non-experts communication in communicating the Covid-19 crisis. She introduces a new model of terminology work which promotes transparency and embraces multifaceted terms. Haddad focuses on two major types of Covid-19 neologisms (metaphor-based neologisms and cultural-based neologisms) in English, Spanish, and Arabic. She suggests that although English is a major contributor to the generation of new primary terms, other languages also coin new primary terms based on their cultural backgrounds.
Chapters 6 and 7 by Dina Abdel Salam El-Dakhs and Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska & Sofiia Struchkova explore attitudes towards vaccination programs. El-Dakhs studies persuasion strategies in the tweets of Saudi and Australian departments of health on Covid-19 vaccination and finds that cultural orientation plays a vital role. Molek-Kozakowska & Struchkova scrutinize news coverage on the AstraZeneca vaccine from Polish media outlets and argue that these media outlets use a low percentage of sentences with science-topicalization and more clauses of impact, negativity, and statistics, which may impede the transmission of the risks of vaccinations and spark public panics.
Chapters 8 and 9 by Zeynep Cihan Koca-Helvacı and John M. Callahan & Robert Jensen investigate the relationship between political and scientific communication, demonstrating how social polarization, political alignments, and media preferences could affect the public's responses to crises. Koca-Helvacı analyzes the discursive strategies of Covid-19 coverage by the American Alternative Right. The Alt Right frames in-group and out-group actors to undermine science and weaponizes conspiracy narratives to empower Trump, which suggests that non-political crises may be politized to serve political interests. Callahan & Jensen substantiate this point by examining the shortcomings of the Trump administration's reaction to the Covid-19 crisis. They suggest that political communication may take precedence over scientific communication when there are conflicts between them.
Overall, incorporating case studies and representative practices from real-world contexts, this edited volume provides useful insights for readers to critically evaluate science information in times of crises, as well as find practical strategies and approaches in effective crisis communication.
