Piloting a Collaboration Between Education and Broadcast Journalism in Taiwan

Abstract

In Taiwan, the production of science news would benefit by cooperation between communication (e.g., the news production team) and science education (e.g., instructional designers and scientists involved). The news production team is skilled in exposing stories vividly to motivate audiences, whereas the science education team carefully curates the scientific and instructional content. Therefore, we started the Different Science News project, which strives to align the above features of science news production. Through using concurrent, local, and concise materials that occur in daily lives, we hope to promote the public understanding of science.

Merging Science Education into Communication: Developing and Validating a Scale for Science Edu-Communication Utilizing Awareness, Enjoyment, Interest, Opinion formation, and Understanding Dimensions (SEC-AEIOU)

“…While the science edu-communication scale using AEIOU constructs measures participants' experiences with science communication, it may also be directed to the participants' experience toward science education in a broader sense (i.e., citizen/public science education). Literature has recently increased attention towards research linkages between science communication and science education, emphasizing shared goals and avenues for collaboration [6][7][8]10]. Moreover, special editions of several journals or issues and the emergence of more journals (beyond Public Understanding of Science and Science Communication) have started to advocate for the need to research and practice science communication and science education together, such as: 2015 special issue on "Bridging Sci.…”

Science-Edu-Communication: Trends Reveal in 20 Years of Science Communication Research

“…Instead of looking at research trends in science education, this research proposed a trend analysis in science communication ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/ ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/ over the previous 21 years, with the goal of revealing prominent trends in science communication to allow coupling of these findings with other research fields, particularly science education. This analysis sought to elucidate the emerging trend in which the goals of science education and communication research were shared, offering fresh insights into the shifts of science communication as well as future areas of collaboration between two fields that historically have not interacted but could stand to benefit in doing so (Baram-Tsabari & Osborne, 2015;Lewenstein, 2015;Ogawa, 2011;L. Y. Wu et al, 2015).…”

“…However, understanding the world has become ever more challenging for citizens than it has been in the past, because people have been inundated with incomplete and erroneous information from the media (L. Y. Wu et al, 2015). If the media at a certain level represents the "skin of culture" (Kerckhove, 1995), and science content in the media has not been communicated well to the public, then the goal of science education to help promote understanding of the changing world is hindered.…”

Teachable Moments in News Media—An Analysis of Audience Awareness, Enjoyment, Interest, Opinion Formation, and Understanding (AEIOU) toward Science

“…While the news on social media can foster or hinder trust in science [6], how the materials are embedded in and communicated via the media can be very critical and may interfere with the public understanding of science [7]. One survey conducted to determine Italian citizens' perceptions and attitudes toward the current COVID-19 crisis reported that 35% of citizens were largely disoriented from the mixture of multiple pieces of information that they encountered from TV news, social media, and friends and relatives and were unable to verify the validity of the sources [8].…”

“…If science educators could help incorporate the instructional elements while collaborating with journalists, streaming program producers, social media contributors, etc., to generate teachable science communication products, the final products can be more relevant or even popular for viewers [7]. For example, while journalists are skilled in using vivid and "common language" to narrate live experiences to the public, science educators can elucidate scientific concepts for journalists, photographers, or computer graphics creators to produce content for the public.…”