Popularização da ciência: a interdiscursividade entre ciência, pedagogia e jornalismo

Abstract

Scientific discourse produced by and for specialists reaches, by means of science popularization (SP), the public sphere of the media, envolving displacements in time, space, and discourse. This hybridization between science and journalism generates scientific journalism, which aims at popularizing science and making it comprehensible, thus performing a pedagogical function. We consider this process as discourse recontextualization from the scientific to the journalistic spheres, mediated by a pedagogic discourse. We argue, in this paper, that SP news texts and scientific articles are members of the same genre system that makes scientific discourse relatively visible to the general public. Firstly, we identify our theoretical framework, the concept we adopt for SP, genre system and recontextualization. Secondly, we explore interdiscursivity in one exemplar of the SP news genre, highlighting the existing relations between science, journalism, and pedagogy in this genre.

Grammar features and discourse style in digital genres: The case of science-focused crowdfunding projects

“…This claim is consistent with previous functional characterisations of linguistic features in other digital genres of science and science popularisation genres in diverse languages -English, Spanish and Portuguese, among others. In those instances, linguistic features serve to explain the "specialised terms in the field of study" (Motta Roth & Scotti Scherer, 2016: 189) and clarify scientific contents in a concise manner (Caliendo, 2012;Gotti, 2014;Scotto di Carlo, 2014;Motta Roth & Scotti Scherer, 2016;Luzón, 2017).…”

“…In terms of cognitive processing, the grammatical constituents of the proposals do not therefore pose difficulties for non-specialist readers, who are given clear and concise information on the scientific research that the research group is investigating, as well as convincing reasons to justify the need for funding. It is nonetheless important to bear in mind that, unlike other digital genres and new forms of communication in Web 2.0 (Gotti, 2014;Hyland, 2010Hyland, , 2018Motta Roth & Scotti Scherer, 2016;Luzón, 2017), these proposals do incorporate scientific jargon while making informational adjustments to reach a lay audience drawing on specific grammatical patterns -e.g. structurally elaborated noun phrases containing prepositional phrase post-modifiers, non-restrictive appositive noun phrases, parentheticals and/or defining -ed participle clauses.…”

“…It involves the construction of texts that need to communicate expert knowledge effectively to audiences with different knowledge backgrounds, different levels of awareness of scientific outreach, and level of understanding of scientific contents in such a way that these audiences are able to interpret and form a personal opinion about the science that is communicated. This can be seen in genres such as science blogs, research group websites, TED talks, microblogging (Twitter), and science popularisation genres such as didactic reportages, infomercials and news in online journals (Caliendo, 2012;Motta Roth & Scotti Scherer, 2016;Mehlenbacher, 2017;Miller & Kelly, 2017). To date, genre uptake has been mostly investigated from the perspectives of rhetoric and discourse.…”

“…These draw on strategies such as reformulation and rephrasing of expert knowledge for both "argumentative and promotional purposes" (Gotti, 2014: 15). Motta Roth and Scotti Scherer (2016) examine 'interdiscursivity' in science popularisation genres and contend that these genres borrow features of scientific discourse, journalistic discourse and pedagogical discourse to inform about scientific contents, 'sell' the value of their scientific work and teach science to a general public. Digital projects in crowdfunding websites (e.g.…”

“…Web-mediated genres have emerged that respond to new social exigences such as the need to disseminate scientific knowledge beyond expert audiences and support and enhance 'scientific culture' or 'scientific literacy', namely, the broad publics' understanding of science (Herring, 2013;Giltrow & Stein, 2006;Giltrow, 2017;Kelly & Miller, 2016;Miller & Kelly, 2017). One key issue that the scholarly literature underlines regarding these emerging genres and new forms of digital communication is that the form and substance of the genres is shaped and constrained by the fact that they target audiences with different backgrounds, interests and expectations (Burns, O'Connor & Stocklmayer, 2003;Hyland, 2010Hyland, , 2018Caliendo, 2012;Gotti, 2014;Scotto di Carlo, 2014;Engberg & Maier, 2015;Motta Roth & Scotti Scherer, 2016;Luzón, 2017). Burns et al (2003: 3) define 'diversified audiences' as those encompassing people who can be either "reasonably well-informed about science and scientific activities" or "interested in but not necessarily well-informed about science", or scientists in other fields, or "decision makers" (e.g.…”