The Lunch Club #2

 Hedwig te Molder (May 21, 2012)

Science is just an opinion*

 While still considered an authoritative domain, science has also become a contested area. Online communities argue against vaccination campaigns, science blogs fight over data that claim to show climate change, and cases of scientific fraud dominate the news. Experts seem open to challenge just for being experts. How come, and what exactly is at stake here? How are scientific experts and communication professionals supposed to deal with this situation? And what role is there for publics and other stakeholders? I will propose an interactional approach to science communication, and invite students for a debate on these challenging issues.  

*Source: Title article NRC Handelsblad 21 September 2011, on scientific authority in decline.

  Hedwig te Molder is associate professor at Communication Science and full professor Science and Technology Communication at the University of Twente. Read more about Hedwig on her personal page.