Science Communication As Performative Event
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Proceedings 2021 Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG21) Conference PERFORMING SCIENCE: SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AS PERFORMATIVE EVENT Alan Chong and Lydia Wilkinson University of Toronto [email protected], [email protected] Abstract – A course at the University of Toronto the subject [1,2], as well as the limited available encourages engineering students to analyze how science is programmatic reviews [3,4], and the overarching focus of conveyed in the popular media through a variety of professional communication conferences, such as IEEE’s contexts. An analysis of the language and rhetoric of these Professional Communication Society [5]. This orientation communicative acts provides on entry point into how is warranted, given the limited imperative of CEAB and science is framed, while the discipline of performance ABET’s graduate attribute in communication [6,7], and our studies, which identifies and analyzes the mechanisms with understanding of engineering employment post-graduation which we present our messages and ourselves, provides [8-14]. another useful tool through which to understand the It is also important that we prepare our students to motivations and associated strategies behind scientific communicate about their engineering work to a broader communication. This teaching practice paper presents audience. The preponderance of scientific and pseudo- three case studies of scientific press conferences used in scientific messaging on social media has created a the course: NASA’s 2010 astrobiology event, the Higgs landscape in which scientific experts, including engineers, Boson announcement in 2012, and Virgin Galactic’s 2014 can contribute meaningfully to improve public SpaceShipTwo crash. These three case studies illustrate understanding of science through clear and direct how the act of communicating science within public spaces messaging. This media landscape is also one in which should be navigated with an awareness of the intended communication is disseminated to and consumed by more message and the way that this message is conveyed and diffuse, heterogenous and ultimately less predictable perceived. Each case study includes a summary of audiences. observations on the event (generated and shared through The University of Toronto’s Science and Technology class discussions), and prompts that will enable the in the Popular Media course helps students prepare for this effective instruction of these and other case studies. complex environment by giving engineering students an opportunity to consider how science is communicated Keywords: engineering communication, science through the media in a variety of contexts; some of these communication, transdisciplinarity, science outreach contexts are mediated by journalists and public officials, for example articles in newspapers and websites, while 1. INTRODUCTION others see scientists communicate directly to the public through multimedia, as in the case of interviews and press As engineering educators, we are highly focused on the conferences. This last mode of communication is a importance of equipping our students with the skills that particularly valuable tool through which to identify and will help them excel as professional engineers; in turn, the articulate best practices for sharing science with the public. communicative artifacts that our students produce, their As public events, a range of high-profile science press engineering documentation and presentations, often target conferences are easily accessible, and an increasingly an audience of likeminded professionals. In some important source of information for both journalists and the instances, we may encourage our students to design public. As events that are typically planned and marketed communication for a non-technical client or for community with some advance notice, these communicative acts are stakeholders, but in these instances the imagined often more carefully managed and controlled than ad-hoc ‘layperson’ is often peripherally engaged in the technical science communication via more immediate social media project, with access to channels such as client meetings or channels like Twitter. As a result, these press conferences stakeholder forums through which they can respond to and provide rich samples of scientific communication in the negotiate the meaning of the communicative object. The media, which can be mined for effective communication orientation of technical communication instruction towards workplace readiness is evident in preeminent textbooks on CEEA-ACEG21; Paper 176 University of Prince Edward Island; June 21 – 23, 2021– 1 of 8 – Proceedings 2021 Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG21) Conference strategies, as well as missteps that may complicate or science communication relies on the transfer of scientific impede public understanding. concepts in simplified form to a largely unfamiliar public, The performative aspects of these press conferences the participatory model acknowledges the importance of further increase their value as source material for case engaging with the public as active participants in scientific studies. Performance theory brings together the fields of debate. The interest and championing of particular anthropology, sociology and mimetics, to consider both scientific issues by the public can influence research how everyday acts and highly staged events constitute acts directions both directly, through research funding, and of performance [15-17]. These press conferences provide indirectly through readership and popularization: one study scientists and engineers with a (sometimes literal) stage found, for example, that an article published in the New that is constructed to share their expertise. While the course England Journal of Medicine is three times more likely to theory focuses on the analytical frames of language and be cited in the scholarly literature if mentioned in the New rhetoric, in-class discussion often moves towards the York Times [19]. Rather than funneling science to a passive performative elements of these press conferences; together recipient through increasingly simplified media (scientist these complimentary analyses provide valuable insights to science journalist to easily understood science article), into the motivations and associated strategies behind these the participatory model actively engages participants in communicative acts, as well as the ways that our students understanding science by providing access to the producers interpret these mediated events. of this science (the scientists themselves) within the spaces This teaching practice paper will present three case in which that science evolves. Nisbet and Mooney’s studies used in the course, highlighting some of the key approach to science communication acknowledges the elements of each case study that can be shared to provoke challenge of harnessing this participatory model within a discussion and deepen student understanding. These three climate of science skepticism: increased public case studies—NASA’s 2010 astrobiology event, the Higgs engagement enables the participatory communication Boson announcement in 2012, and Virgin Galactic’s 2014 model, while at the same time necessitating a greater SpaceShipTwo crash—illustrate how the act of awareness and management of how particular framing communicating science within public spaces should be devices appeal to particular groups. navigated with an awareness of the intended message and Press conferences offer an opportunity for viewers to the way that this message is conveyed. Each case study hear directly from the science authority, enabling the type includes a summary of observations on the event of more immediate dialogue between scientist and public (generated and shared through class discussions), and forwarded by the participatory model. As carefully prompts that will enable the effective instruction of these managed events they are also opportunities for these and other case studies. scientists or the institutions they represent to frame their message in particular ways, which is where an 2. BACKGROUND acknowledgement of the performative possibilities of these spaces becomes particularly relevant. As a sociological Science and Technology in the Popular Media equips construct framing acknowledges the existence of schemas, students with theories of scientific communication to stories or interpretive frameworks through which we provide a framework for their analysis of these case interpret the world. Performance theory further studies. The course introduces Nisbet and Mooney’s acknowledges the potential of these frames as guides for concept of scientific framing: published in 2008, and and interpretive tools through which to understand human seemingly anticipating the recent spread of pseudo-science behaviour: as signals of our status, position, values, across today’s media landscape, Nisbet and Mooney’s affinities and identities, our behaviours constitute a Science letter argues for the importance of pitching science performance of self in society. While students are not to the values and dominant attitudes of particular explicitly instructed in performance theory, they are audiences. Nisbet and Mooney’s position explicitly encouraged to move beyond a content and message responds to partisan antiscientific campaigns, for example analysis, to consider how other elements of the press climate change denial as a largely Republican or conference, including human behaviours and physical