PCOST- Public Communication of Science & Technology

The Public Communication of Science & Technology (PCOST) Project was developed to improve public communication on science and technology, including emerging and converging technologies such as nanotechnology, bionanotechnology, and neurotechnology, emerging technologies, such as geoengineering and synthetic biology, and more traditional fields such as public health, natural disasters, and hazard and risk.

Public communication in these fields must confront many different challenges many of which fall into two broad categories.

First, science and technology are a substantial challenge given high levels of uncertainties. Whether we are talking about synthetic biology or nanotechnologies or public health and weather warning. Sometimes we have bluster from both proponents and opponents. Oftentimes, hyperbole substitutes for data when anticipated consequences are discussed. At other times, critics engage in their own tirades on globalization, rich-poor gaps, digital divides, privacy encroachments, etc. and transfer their compliants onto new technologies. We need to find ways to make decisions under moderate levels of uncertainty that both secure human and environmental health and safety without foregoing the benefits of development and higher standards of living. Ideologies must take a back seat to science studies research and critical discourse.

Second, digital media, the Internet and social media, have changed the playing field. Traditional work in communication came from research undertaken on newspapers, magazine articles and television and how they affect the formation of perception and opinion involving agenda-setting and framinf. Digital media have complicated our understanding of the role played by media as both an attenuator and an amplifier of risk messages. Recent data indicates a significant trend towards netnews at the expense of traditional sources especially in terms of science and technology issues. Most recently, we see social media in the likes of Facebook, blogging and microblogging (Twitter), and YouTube as impotant conduits of information about science and technology. For scholars in communication digital media has changed the landscape of what we do. We need to find ways to link public interest, attention, and perception through these new media forms.

Professor David Berube serves as the Director of PCOST. The project is recruiting members and will petition to become a Center/Institute in the near future. In addition, PCOST is excited about its new move to the Chancellor suites on the 5th floor of the James B. Hunt Library .

Please visit our new YouTube channel to view presentations by PCOST members.