How the Pen fought the Pandemic
“Good communication is the key between confusion and clarity”
Turner’s words aptly summarize the pivotal role of clear communication in the past two years especially between international organizations, governments and those they represent. Looking back, the case for establishing a pandemic communications unit is indeed pretty strong.
In fact, situations of emergencies- like the COVID-19 pandemic-have put a spotlight on the absence of clear lines of communication between policymakers, researchers and the common people. Effectively conveying complex concepts in simpler terms drives the first step necessary for creating a positive impact that many technical experts strive to ultimately achieve, with their work. And in the modern world, this back and forth of ideas and thoughts has several formats to experiment, media to grow in and people to create a community with.
Communication 101 in 3 steps:
- Know your audience
Knowing your audience is key to communicating successfully about scientific topics. Common target audiences include the lay public, the media, and policy makers. As you prepare your article, presentation, visuals etc., keep a specific reader in mind. Most common mistakes budding science communicators tend to make is assuming their “reader community” is a uniform group of people.
2. Know your message
Start with the most important information. It’s best to prioritize sharing pieces of information based on their purpose and keeping in mind their perceived perception. And avoid jargon– it’s not advised to omit technical terms where they are absolutely required, however using them sparsely helps in effective communication. Another usual pitfall is when a science communicator’s honest approach to simplifying concepts (a.k.a dumbing down) comes across as patronizing.
3. Focus on the bigger picture
Most science usually happens in sanitized labs and controlled environments. Which means, this usually leaves the bigger picture impact of the scientific endeavor, outside these laboratories. Your audience almost always wants you to immediately answer their “So what?; Why do I care?” Putting the science in the context of the impact ( e.g: financial, technological, educational) makes the audience receptive and engaged.
During the pandemic, regional efforts towards inclusive science communication saw enormous growth. In fact, different phases during the pandemic activated many community-driven efforts for effective communication between science, policymakers and society. DivulgAÇÃO Científica led by Sidcley Lyra was one such science communication initiative in Portuguese.
“I was already producing [COVID-19 communication] materials”, said Lyra when asked about the inception of DivulgAÇÃO Científica. “Today it’s better because we have a bigger team.” His formal education in microbiology and science communication perfectly supplemented his efforts. Lyra further elaborates the various aspects of being a skilled science communicator. A science communicator’s work garners opinion across the spectrum.
While popular, positive and constructive feedback from a large number of viewers on the internet encouraged him; comments upon covering controversial subjects (such as: use of ivermectin, chloroquine etc.) were unkind, to say the least, says Lyra. He added that since, COVID-19 is a sensitive subject and involves people who have lost families and friends, balancing empathy with clear communication of facts becomes important. On the other hand, he cautions that there are certain adverse effects that affect science journalists, science communicators and fact-checkers who try to simplify the scientific information. Mental wellbeing takes a major toll going through announcements of number of active cases, deaths, seeing economic indicators fumble etc.
Lyra mentions that even though the project ends this year, the content produced by DivulgAÇÃO Científica will stay there for longer, thanks to JOGL’s microgrant”. In addition to that, the microgrant also helped him hire and support talented individuals who helped with science journalism for DivulgAÇÃO Científica for the last few years.
“Communication leads to Community…” -Rollo May
Sustaining a global community of 5000+ innovators and changemakers from a wide spectrum of demographics, age and skillset, will always be a challenge and so it was for us at JOGL too. Such a challenge helped us realize the significance of finding commonality in diversity and even science communication strives for the same, to some extent.
Interested in learning how YOU can grow your community and effect positive impact? JOGL’s got you– we have a plethora of fast-growing communities sharing their projects, opportunities and hopes with us every month. Find them at our next “What If” event at https://www.meetup.com/JustOneGiantLab/
