Information Research

Vol. 29 No. 1 2024

The science-media interface: On the relation between internal and external science communication

My attention to this book was captured by the title mentioning science-media interface. I was interested in the conceptualisation of the term interface in this case and how it will be explored in the book.

In fact, this volume really deserves to attract the attention of the academic community. It presents mainly the studies of German scholars based on German or, in some cases, on internationally acquired data. Nevertheless, these studies address research problems that are important and interesting for the scholars and scientists in any country.

The term interface as treated in this book acquires dynamic features of two-way communication between science and media and includes such actors of this communication as mediators between both sides, such as the Science Media Centre in Germany, the preprints as a means of transferring novel research finding to journalists, news as the triggers of researchers attention to access research publications, promotion measures directing attention to particular articles or journalists focusing public attention on science events and actors.

The first three studies analyse the mechanisms and means used by the media reporting or just presenting scientific achievements and the interaction of media with various sources of scientific information. The last three chapters present studies exploring how media affects researchers and other public actors in drawing their attention to scientific publications, events and actors.

Each published study is based on rigorous methodology whether it applies quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods. In fact, the volume can be a good guide demonstrating the possibilities of a wide range of methods as applied in communication studies in more general terms, but especially in science communication research. One can find bibliometrics, ethnography, Delphi method, an interesting combination of bibliometrics with deep content analysis, and even observation of science journalism. In all cases, there is enough information for those who would like to conduct similar studies in other temporal or spacial contexts.

The results of the studies also range from establishing an expected role of scientific press releases using rigorous statistical analysis (chapter 1) to falsifying of the hypothesis about high selective effects achieved by media presence of science (chapter 6). The findings overall reveal the interactions between the two sides as rich, significant and intriguing area of studies. It also demonstrates that the German school of science communication research has acquired significant competence, developed interesting methods of data collection and analysis, and applies a variety of creative approaches in theirs studies.

The publication itself is of high quality with good design of grey-scale images, well-presented tables and annexes, name and subject indexes. What I have missed is some information about the editors and authors. One can see that the editors also lead the teams (or at least participate in them) conducting the studies and writing the chapters, however, it would be useful to have more data about them for audience outside Germany

I have really appreciated the fact that the book has been published in English. De Gruyter often produces interesting research publications in German. It is, of course, my lack of knowledge that does not allow me to read and learn from them, but those books that are in English help to access German scholarship not only for me, but also for wider academic audience in the world. In this particular case, I would recommend this book to my colleagues working in the areas of scientometrics and bibliometrics, scientific information and science communication, information science and communication studies in general.

Elena Maceviciute
Vilnius University
March, 2024