Brazilian science communication research: national and international contributions

Abstract

Science communication has emerged as a new field over the last 50 years, and its progress has been marked by a rise in jobs, training courses, research, associations, conferences and publications. This paper describes science communication internationally and the trends and challenges it faces, before looking at the national level. We have documented science communication activities in Brazil, the training courses, research, financial support and associations/societies. By analyzing the publication of papers, dissertations and theses we have tracked the growth of this field, and compared the level of activity in Brazil with other countries. Brazil has boosted its national research publications since 2002, with a bigger contribution from postgraduate programs in education and communication, but compared to its national research activity Brazil has only a small international presence in science communication. The language barrier, the tradition of publishing in national journals and the solid roots in education are some of the reasons for that. Brazil could improve its international participation, first by considering collaborations within Latin America. International publication is dominated by the USA and the UK. There is a need to take science communication to the next level by developing more sophisticated tools for conceptualizing and analyzing science communication, and Brazil can be part of that.

Models to build capacity for African science centres and science communication: needs and assets

“…Initial establishment of centres in the 1990s has grown to over 470 science centres and museums as of 2015 according to RedPOP, the Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Popularization of Science and Technology, with 22 postgraduate science communication courses across five countries . The general public are also increasingly visiting science centres, with a Brazilian survey seeing growth from 4% in 2006 to 12% in 2015 [Barata, Caldas and Gascoigne, 2018], which is comparable to the last surveyed levels in the European Union of 16% [European Commission, 2005].…”

“…That is not to discount the key role government plays via policy, funding and establishing science communication departments. This was critical to rapid growth in Brazil [Barata, Caldas and Gascoigne, 2018] and South Africa [Du Plessis, 2008], with recent government accreditation programs and capacity building in the latter further assisting. The data, however, does suggest that streamlining government processes may assist science centres to grow.…”

Systematic Review of Spatial Planning and Marine Protected Areas: A Brazilian Perspective

“…The English language could have overrepresented the number of studies and made others invisible (Mongeon and Paul-Hus, 2016). Although the growth of publications in Brazil has been evident since 2002, Brazilian publications still have little presence abroad due to the language barrier (Barata et al, 2018). Authors in research areas such as the social sciences and humanities publish mainly in Portuguese, although in some areas it is disregarded as a language of knowledge dissemination (Solovova et al, 2018).…”

Midiatização da ciência

“…Segundo Wilson Bueno (2010), a disseminação refere-se à transferência de informações científicas ou tecnológicas realizada por cientistas e que se destinam aos especialistas de uma determinada área do conhecimento. Para o autor, a divulgação cumpre função primordial de democratizar o acesso ao conhecimento e estabelecer condições para a chamada alfabetização científica, voltada para o público leigo, em uma reprodução discursiva que implica em uma hierarquização do conhecimento baseada no modelo de déficit amplamente debatido nos últimos trinta anos no campo de estudos da comunicação da ciência Caldas;Gascoigne, 2018).…”