At a time when the scientific consensus on critical issues such as vaccinations and climate change is being called into question, a comprehensive new handbook is being developed to survey issues in science communication.
“The Oxford Handbook on the Science of Science Communication,” a sweeping examination of the challenges in communicating science effectively in a polarized environment, will identify those challenges and present recommendations on how to overcome them. It is scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in 2017.
The volume is the first major project to emerge from research in science communication at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. It also is an outgrowth of National Academy of Sciences Arthur M. Sackler colloquia in 2012 and 2013 on the Science of Science Communication, in which all three of its editors participated.
“This is the first comprehensive and current treatment of the science of science communication as an issue,” said APPC director Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who is co-editing the handbook with Dietram A. Scheufele (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Dan M. Kahan (Yale University). Scheufele and Kahan are visiting scholars at APPC in 2015-16.
The handbook, developed for scientists, academics and students of science communication, will grapple with the failure of widely accessible scientific evidence to effectively inform public controversies on issues including climate change, the human papilloma virus vaccine, and the safety of bio-engineered foods on the market in the United States.
The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1994 to educate the public and policy makers about the media’s role in advancing public understanding of political, health and science issues at the local, state and federal levels.
Contact: Michael Rozansky | 215.746.0202
