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Is public engagement with science an effective response to threats against science? One form of public engagement—citizen science—might be especially useful for addressing issues of inequality that threaten public support for science. Citizen science is both public participation in the scientific process and public participation in the governance of science. In principle, citizen science empowers marginalized communities to participate in the scientific process, using the authority of science to challenge government, industry, or other institutions that exploit imbalances of social power. In practice, however, citizen science can also be used to redirect attention away from actions that address inequalities and to reinforce modes of knowledge production that exclude alternative ways of knowing relevant to those without social power. Thus, rhetoric about citizen science as a solution to threats against science needs to be tempered with attention to specific contexts and opportunities.

This paper presents an argument for the essential intertwining of expertise, democracy, and science communication.

In this paper, I will highlight some of the assumptions underlying the new language and approach in the field of science communication, –that is, the language of public engagement or social appropriation. My goal is to show how an understanding of the political implications of different models of science communication can help us negotiate the relationships of power and authority that are at stake. Recognizing the political complexity of the public engagement context can help in identifying the scholarly questions that need to be explored, as well as the more practical questions that need to be asked in evaluations of particular events, activities, and institutions. ; En este artículo destacaré algunos supuestos subyacentes al nuevo lenguaje (y enfoque) que se utiliza en el ámbito de la comunicación pública de la ciencia –esto es, al lenguaje de la participación pública o apropiación social. Mi propósito es mostrar cómo una comprensión de las implicaciones políticas de los diferentes modelos de comunicación pública de la ciencia puede ayudarnos a negociar las relaciones de poder y autoridad que están en juego. El reconocimiento de la complejidad política del contexto de la participación pública puede ayudarnos a identificar las cuestiones académicas que es necesario investigar, así como las preguntas más prácticas que es necesario formular en la evaluación de eventos concretos, actividades, e instituciones

The impact of new technologies on the transformation of information into knowledge is not clear. Especially problematic is the degree to which electronic communication can replace traditional forums in which information is judged and social consensus about its value is achieved. This article uses electronic bulletin boards active during the cold fusion saga that began in 1989 to explore these issues. Dividing the contents of the bulletin boards into big ideas and little ideas, the article suggests that only about half of all messages on the boards were big ideas, and only half of those were on technical issues. The study suggests that the substantial volume of irrelevant material and the difficulty of applying extratextual cues to the judgment of information made the bulletin boards an ineffective tool for creating knowledge in this case.

Creation of the Cold Fusion Archive at Cornell University raises questions about documenting-in real time, as the scientific and political debate rages-how sciientific knowledge is created, diffused, and evaluated. The archive contains material offive types: published, manuscript electronic, material culture, and interviews. Technical questions involve the acquisition, organization, and preservation of materials. Intellectual questions involve the scope and limitatons of systematic collecting. Despite about the truth of cold fusion claims, documenting the controversy provides insight into the process of knowledge creation and diffusion.

This study introduces a media effects model specific to public perceptions of science and technology. Analysis of the National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators Survey provides evidence that different media—newspapers, general television, science television, and science magazines—do affect perceptions differently. These media effects are direct but also indirect, as mediated through effects on science knowledge. Although newspaper reading, science television viewing, and science magazine reading all promote positive perceptions of science, given the relative size of its audience, the impact of general television viewing remains the most compelling finding. The negative images of science on television appear to cultivate scientific reservations, whereas television's portrayal of science as sometimes omnipotent, and offering hope for the future, appears to also promote a competing schema related to the promise of science. Television's direct effect on reservations is reinforced through the medium's negative relationship with science knowledge.