Читать книгу Communicating Science in Times of Crisis - Группа авторов - Страница 11

H. Dan O’Hair and Mary John O’Hair

University of Kentucky

In December 2019, events began cascading in Asia that changed the lives of everyone on this planet. The transmission of a virus from a bat to humans (known as zoonotic) was little understood at the time, but after only a period of three months, the coronavirus that became known as COVID-19 became the conversation on the tips of tongues of all people. The pushing out of science by medical, technical, even political professionals developed into an onslaught of information that tested most individuals’ learning curves.

The study of science communication has taken some important turns in the last 20–30 years. The meteoric spread of infectious diseases; changing conditions in society, in the atmosphere, in our climate; technological advances; and changes in human relationships have offered rich contexts in which to apply communication theory.

… disease outbreaks, terrorist acts, and natural disasters are obvious examples of contexts in which risk and health communication play increasingly critical roles. Broadcasting media have found risk and health crisis events to be particularly seductive as stories that fascinate their audiences. Moreover, with digital media evolving at such a rapid rate, many members of the audience have taken on the role of newsmaker or reporter—we are not entirely certain to what effect. Digital media has proven to serve many useful functions such as operating as a conduit for warnings to the public and acting as a gauge for how messages are received and acted upon. On top of these dynamic conditions, many in the science, risk and health communication research communities find extreme events and hazardous contexts to be on the increase, and an evolving media landscape introduces both challenges and opportunities for using communication to manage these situations.

(O’Hair, 2018, p. 3)

In this vein, this book will address issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the research implications intrinsic in the process of communicating science in times of crisis.