How human stories may help build trust in science communication

Science communication connects science and society by sharing findings with non-experts, raising awareness and interest, shaping attitudes and behavior, informing policy, and engaging communities on societal problems. How can human stories help build trust and open conversations across differences? The lessons consider storytelling, public events, online dialogue, and communication standards as ways to connect science with people.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 55 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   science communication · Wikipedia · 44 min read

   Science communication, Susanna Hornig Priest argued in her 2009 introduction essay on science's contemporary audiences, might help non-scientists feel they are not excluded: they can join in if they want, rather than feeling a necessity to spend their lives engaging. Live science communication includes public lectures in museums or universities, debates, science busking, "sci-art" exhibits, Science Cafés and science festivals. Events can combine science communication and comedy, as in Festival of the Spoken Nerd, or take place during scientific controversies.

2. Read
   

   Science Communication in the Post-Expert Digital Age - Eos · Eos · 6 min read

   Science communicators can join and initiate conversations that start with people, not science, to open new lines of conversation across ideological divisions. Strategically navigated online communication may help.

3. Watch
   

   Developing Students' Science Communication Skills · YouTube · 5 min watch

   Gunther Roland discusses the central importance of communication skills in physics.

4. Book
   

   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks · Bookshop.org

   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot describes how Henrietta's cells were taken without her knowledge, her family was used in research without informed consent, and her family never saw profits from the multimillion-dollar industry selling human biological materials.

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