Getting started on the Civic Science Media (CSM) Network
A living guide to help users navigate the growing CSM Network that is being built by the Civic Science Media Lab.
Overview
The Civic Science Media Lab conducts civic science journalism to explore the intersection between science and public life — referred to as the civic nature of science. Specifically, the practice explores the knowledge, experiences, actions, roles, motivations, and responsibilities of scientists, funders, educators, policymakers, communicators, journalists, and other practitioners in designing solutions to science-related public matters through community engagement.
The Civic Science Media Network is a one-stop shop resource to access these rapidly changing insights from diverse innovators in research and practice across civic science. Making such knowledge accessible and actionable is the core mission of the CSM Network. The platform tackles the widespread challenge of accessing timely, and direct insights from innovators in civic science research and practice. By providing a centralized place to integrate this information, the terminal enhances the user’s ‘situational awareness’ of the civic nature of science and provides them with the necessary navigational aid to transform information into actionable knowledge to advance their own work and/or education.
The CSM Network is comprised of searchable insights from researchers and practitioners that are produced on video, audio, and/or print. As an example of a use case, content from the CSM Network is already being used by academic institutions (e.g., Harvard’s LabXchange platform) to bring civic science education into the classroom by providing college students and educators access to new insights in civic science.
This guide is intended to provide an overview of the terminal to help users utilize the tool to access insights and effectively navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of civic science.
The Problem
The landscape of civic science is changing rapidly. With growth, there are several challenges. For example, navigating the space between scholarship and practice in the realm of civic science is no easy task. Additionally, direct access to timely insights from those doing work on the ground is also a major challenge. We make the argument that landscape mapping and most importantly, the direct discourse with scholars and practitioners through civic science journalism is the key to providing a tool for interested parties to navigate the changing landscape. The CSM Network then serves as a one-stop searchable shop, aggregating our civic science journalism across our video, audio, and print programs (see Fig. 1). This centralized approach allows users to efficiently access a diverse range of expert voices across mediums, thus increasing the capacity of users to turn information into actionable insights.
Navigation
(coming soon)
Search Functions
(coming soon)
