Science Communication: A Brief History

Recent years have seen a huge drive to bring science and research to a wider audience, and to reduce the elitism built into society with regards to who is allowed access to scientific knowledge and learning. While science once was the bastion of the wealthy, well-educated man, it now belongs to all of us – or so is the intention of science communication.

Let’s take a look at how we reached the approach that is used today in most global north societies. Science communication as we know it is a surprisingly new frontier, with much of the philosophy evolving since the later part of the 20th century. After a fairly stale period of science advancement in the UK, the British Science Association was set up in the mid-19th century and one of their aims was ‘to obtain a greater degree of national attention to the objects of science’. The Great Exhibition in 1851 showcased the groundbreaking scientific and technological advances of the age, open theatre surgery made medicine a spectator event, and Darwinism started to gain wide public attention – though not without controversy at the time.

Through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, science was disseminated predominantly through exhibits, lectures, and journals, the nature of which – given the socioeconomic, racial, and gender inequalities of the era, not to mention illiteracy rates – meant that knowledge was thrown back into the echo chamber of wealthy, well-educated European men. The Space Race was a turning point here, as it turned the public attention towards science in ways nothing really had before, aided undoubtedly by the political furore surrounding space exploration, as well as the advent of television. Educational television and radio shows began to pop up, bringing not only science itself to the entertainment industry, but also turning scientists into celebrities.

In 1987, an influential article by John Durant and Geoffrey Thomas asked the question: why should we promote public understanding of science? The pair advocated that public understanding of science, or science literacy, would benefit society, as training more engineers and scientists would allow nations to compete better economically, and would help the public to navigate an increasingly tech-driven world. This kick-started campaigns to get people into STEM, to educate and inform, and to generally fill the knowledge deficit that the public outside the scientific community was perceived to have.

However, the public understanding of science approach soon started to receive criticism. The deficit model, as this approach is now known, began being seen as one-dimensional and one-way, positioning scientists and researchers as the purveyors of knowledge, and the wider public as previously ignorant recipients, arguably further emphasising the boundary between expert and public. This led to the development of the approach commonly referred to as the contextual model, or public engagement with science.

This shift in language and attitude positions experts and publics on even footing, with a two-way conversation in place that provides an opportunity for mutual learning, as well as accommodating for the breadth of worldviews, learning styles and perspectives that characterise the ‘public’. Now the most common model used in the global north, this more rounded and dialogic approach better enables researchers and scientists to achieve science communication’s main aims. The vowel analogy lays these aims out concisely: Awareness, Enjoyment, Interest, Opinion-forming, and Understanding. People should have contextual, engaging, and comprehensive access to facts and research that will impact their lives – such as health, technological and climate science frontiers – so that they can make decisions and demand their leaders make decisions in their best interest.

So how is science being communicated today? In the digital and social media age, video is becoming an increasingly popular tool for communicating all manner of subjects. In one day, 9 billion videos will be viewed on Facebook and YouTube alone. Resources shared on social media allow people to learn not only visually and aurally, but also kinaesthetically by offering opportunities to interact with the content through comments and shares. Podcasts have also seen exponential growth over the last decade, with science becoming a mass-appealing genre: 77% of science podcasts’ target audience is the general public as opposed to academics and scientists. Scientists making public social media accounts and building big followings is another new and effective phenomenon in science communication, giving science a face and garnering trust while posting digestible and shareable infographics and factual summaries. Direct public participation in research through citizen science and crowdfunding increases public awareness, and gives people a hand in the research undertaken for the betterment of their communities.

Effective science communication means the public can be informed, entertained, and empowered by learning science, and researchers can see their work move and influence society. It is this mutual approach that has the potential to be transformative for science and global communities.