Mediatized scientific communication in post-normal science and traditional science: field-specific mediatization

• Applicant: Dr. Corinna Lüthje
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 251947167

Science and scientific knowledge are regarded as products of communicative construction. Communication is the central scientific practice. Communicative change provokes scientific change concerning internal field rules, the position of the scientific field in the social space, and the production of knowledge. Usually scientific communication (science communication as well as scholarly communication) is mediated communication. Media change always provokes communicative change. The aim of this project is to analyze the effects of (technological) media change on scientific communication. Mediatization of science is a fundamental and radical process of transformation concerning the self-conception of scientist as well as their everyday practices. However, communicative change cannot be explained by mono-causal concepts like technological respectively media determinism. The theoretical framework is the combination of mediatization (Krotz), field theory (Bourdieu) and post-normal science (Funtowicz & Ravetz). The working hypothesis is that the process of field-specific mediatization takes place within a dynamic and complex system of several elements and components and can be seen as the result of the interplay between historically grown logics of social fields and structures, individual actors and habitus, socio-cultural change of the social space, and media innovation. Traditional science is differentiated in scientific disciplines. Each discipline forms a specific sub-field of the scientific field with specific practices of communication. In contrast attributes of post-normal science are interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity due to complexity, social and political relevance, urgent decisions, public interest, and media attention. The empirical study compares traditional and post-normal science and investigates climate research as an example of post-normal science. Examples of traditional science are disciplines which contribute to climate research (e.g. meteorology, soil sciences, physics, geography, oceanography, sociology, political science, communication studies). They will be represented by persons who are not working within climate research but are rooted in the respective disciplinary field. The work plan encompasses media-biographical interviews with the intention to reconstruct the change of scientific media and the change of practices of communication, and partly standardized media diaries combined with reconstructive interviews concerning the status quo of mediatization. The aim of this exploratory study is theory building concerning field-specific processes of mediatization of science.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants