Knowledge broker, trust broker, value broker: The roles of the Science Media Center during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In the communicative figuration of science communication (Hepp & Hasebrink, 2017), a variety of actors, practices and orientations contribute to the mediation of scientific knowledge and expertise. By curating scientific content for a journalistic audience, Science Media Centers (SMCs) can take up a powerful intermediary position. In this paper, we apply a figurational framework to understand what roles SMCs can take in science communication. Building on ethnographic material gathered during January and October 2020, we analyze through which practices, communicative relations, mission and normative assumptions SMC Germany has shaped its position in science communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doing so, we follow the “cultural turn” in science communication research. Building on the concept of brokerage, we conclude that SMC Germany has taken on roles as a knowledge broker by providing journalists with curated scientific content, a trust broker by facilitating relationships between journalists and scientists, and a value broker by promoting the status of scientific expertise in the social knowledge order.

The Roles of Social Media and Traditional News Media in Promoting Government Responsiveness in Social Incidents

“…Through professional reporting, traditional news media can highlight the key points in social incidents, remove some misleading information, weaken unimportant information, and play the role of broker，which means that traditional news media effectively link three different social roles (Broer & Pröschel, 2022): bridging (linking actors or issues that have not yet been linked); linking (turning a weakened or marginalized actor into a prominent one); bonding (strengthening or weakening the existing connection of actors or issues).…”

Unreviewed science in the news: The evolution of preprint media coverage from 2014-2021

“…Similarly, outlets which publish content but are not considered journalism, such as university websites and press release distribution services, may also contribute to mobilizing preprint research. For example, the Science Media Centre in Germany-a non-journalistic outlet that provides science journalists with access to research and expert perspectives-began sharing roundups of newly posted preprints during the pandemic (Broer, 2020;Broer & Pröschel, 2022). Again, however, any evidence about the nature of non-journalistic outlets reporting on preprints is limited to the pandemic period.…”