Mismatching ideas among the experts–Producing science edu-communication media for the citizen

Abstract

The need to improve the status of the quality and the production efficiency of science news media is urgent. In order to depict the “misunderstanding” among the related personals, the current study interviewed the following members: “science edu-communicators” (those with science education background and worked as the mediators between the journalists and the scientists), “journalists” (those who interviewed the scientists and produced the science news media), and the “scientists” (those who were the knowledge providers explained the scientific contents to the audience). The “misunderstandings” were coded and labelled as “mismatch of frames”. Through a series of semi-structural interviews, it was found that these divergent frames led to different interpretations, understandings and expectations to the production of the educational science news media. Thus, these “mismatching of frames” caused their conflicts. A total of 47 conflicts of frames were identified in the process of interviewing protocol. Among them, eight conflicts were about “awareness”; three conflicts were about “enjoyment”; two conflicts were about “opinion formation”; and 34 conflicts were about “understanding”. There was no conflict related to “interest”. Possible reasons regarding why the three parties held different frames in science communication are analyzed and discussed. Further, recommendations for future development of production model for science news media collaboration were discussed.