HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Science and Environmental Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1491250
Science communication on TikTok: Towards transformative and post-normal science
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- 2University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
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Science communication on social media is becoming increasingly important in order to promote an open dialog between science and the public. This raises the question of how to present topics related to climate change in a way that is both scientific and tailored to a non-specialist audience. The article takes up this question through the lenses of transformative and post-normal science using the TikTok channel @energiewende.erklaert run by Dr. Eva-Maria Grommes as an example. The case study illustrates how an individual researcher approaches science communication in an interactive way and demonstrates how scientific findings on the energy transition are communicated based on the needs expressed by those interacting with the researcher’s content. @energiewende.erklaert effectively introduces scientific results into public discourse while maintaining scientific integrity and promoting inclusivity. Therefore @energiewende.erklaert and TikTok act as a platform for scientists to experiment with interactive science communication. Dr. Eva-Maria Grommes acts as a representative of transformative science by stimulating debates outside the scientific system. At the same time, the content of @energiewende.erklaert is subject to post-normal conditions and thus allows conclusions to be drawn about lived practices, norms and roles. Ultimately, this highlights competences that researchers need beyond tailoring scientific findings to a non-specialist audience.
Keywords: Transformative science, post-normal science, TikTok, energy transition, Science Communication
Received: 04 Sep 2024; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Frick, Grommes and Watanabe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Claudia Frick, University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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