The Communication Process

Abstract

Several models, both simple and sophisticated, that describe the dissemination of science news exist (see for instance Gregory & Miller, 1998, Madsen, 2003, Mahoney, 2005-I and also Fiske, 2004 (textbook on general communication)). However, since science new s may be communicated by many different methods, in many different situations and to many different audiences, it is difficult to fit every aspect of science communication into one model. As an example, science news reported in the media may originate from a variety of different sources such as:

• press releases and announcements from scientific institutions, funding agencies and government organisations;

• press conferences;

• scientists giving public talks; science journalists who carry out their own story research in scientific journals or from scientific preprint services like Astro-ph;

• journalists attending scientific conferences.

This illustrates the difficulty in describing the situation comprehensively with just one model.