Training Science Communication in a Swift Moving Society

Abstract

Inverting the order of the elements in the title this chapter will first explore the idea of “a swift-moving society”. It is not just about changes and opportunities derived from the information and communication tools (which have been provocatively labelled SMS synecdoche by a speaker at the CER 2005 conference). It will also revise some features of the knowledge citizen: impatient to be informed, supplied with tools (in the best possible scenario) but in many cases with a severe lack of capability to discriminate serious and trash information. It will then briefly look at the impact these changes are having on communication in general and, more specifically, the communication of science and technology. Finally, it will comment on a few ideas for a new type of training for scientists that includes communication as a fundamental part of their skills, not only in the sense of being able to relate to the media, but also in the broad understanding of emerging opportunities of direct communication with society. Bypassing conventional media and communicating directly with the citizens is one of the future challenges for the new scientists of the knowledge society. For such a task, the Internet could undoubtedly have a prominent place, but we might also think about other tools, such as SMS, for instance