The Art of Knowing Knowledge WHAT DOES COMMUNICATION MEAN LESSONS FROM THE CASE OF GENETICS

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The Art of Knowing KnowledgeWHAT DOES
COMMUNICATION MEAN?LESSONS FROM THE CASE OF
GENETICS

• Massimiano BucchiDipartimento di Scienze Umane e
  Sociali
• Università di Trento
• Trento, 10 April 2006

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The transfer model
MEDIA
PUBLIC
SCIENCE
Keywords Reception, Flow, Distortions,
Target.
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The transfer model underlying assumptions

• Information can be transferred without
  significant alteration from one context to
  another.
• The same information in different contexts will
  result in the same attitudes and eventually in
  the same type of behaviour.

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Science communication studies challenging the
transfer model

• - non linearity of the communication process
  science communication need not necessarily spring
  from specialized contexts but can originate also
  in popular, non specialized arenas (Lewenstein,
  1995)
• - reception of science communication as not a
  passive process but a complex set of active
  transformative process which can, in turn, impact
  on the core scientific debate itself (Wynne,
  1992 Epstein, 1996)
• - specialist exposition of science theories and
  results (i.e. the source of transfer in the
  traditional paradigm) cannot be sharply separated
  from popular exposition (the target of
  transfer) science communication process as a
  continuous sequence of expository levels,
  gradually shifting one into another with
  differences in degree and not in kind, mutually
  influencing one another (Cloitre and Shinn, 1985
  Hilgartner, 1990)

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Science communication as a continum
Intraspecialistic Stage
Pedagogical Stage
Popular Stage
Interspecialistic Stage
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The discourse of gene action a case of public
misunderstanding?
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Specialist level

• Development of molecular biology, structure of
  DNA, interaction with other research fields,
  Human Genome Project

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Public level

• Discourses about heredity, identity and
  difference
• Ideas on the transformation of species and man
• Shift of emphasis from community to the family
  and the individual
• Centralization of nature as the primary focus for
  understanding the development and management of
  life

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Communication from transfer to crosstalk?
GENE
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What is gene talk for?

• Gene Boundary object/trading zone allowing
  different categories of actors and arenas to
  interact.

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What is gene talk for?

• As the discourse of responsibility and choice
  makes it possible for individuals to mutually
  align and regulate their conducts (Barnes, 2002),
  so the discourse on genes makes interaction
  possible between different levels and arenas

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What is communication?
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A different metaphor?
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References

• M. Bucchi, Can Genetics Help Us Rethink
  Communication? Public Communication of Science as
  a Double Helix, New Genetics and Society,
  special issue on The Meanings of Genomics, 23,
  3, 2004 269-284.