ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Science and Environmental Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1566429
Exploring impacts of participatory science communication on science, politics, and society
Provisionally accepted
- 1Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
- 2Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Discussions on potential impacts of participatory science communication (PSC) formats on science, society, and politics would benefit from more empirical investigation. This article provides a systematic analysis of the perceptions of science communicators on the potential impacts of PSC on these different groups. The two basic questions are: What impact does PSC have on science, society, and politics? To what extent can these impacts be attributed to the different PSC communication formats? To answer these questions, 20 PSC projects implemented in the German Science Year 2022 were analysed. Semi-structured interviews with project coordinators revealed diverse potential impacts on science, society, and politics. While the impacts on science and society were predominantly assessed positively, impacts on politics were considered to be more case-specific and subordinate. Regression analyses indicate that these impacts can rarely be attributed to the PSC communication formats applied in projects. The results call into question global statements on the relevance of participation, and highlight the importance of different impact mechanisms for different groups in communication projects.Conceptual and theoretical frameworkScience communication activities abound, as does the wish to evaluate the impact of these activities clearly. These impact measurements still face several challenges, including the actual definitions of emerging types of science communication activities and their impacts (Metcalfe 2022, Ziegler et al., 2021).Participatory science communication is a relatively new concept compared with informative and dialogic forms of science communication, resulting in diverse definitions in the literature (Bucchi &
Keywords: impact, models of science communication, Participation, mixed methods, Comparative case study
Received: 24 Jan 2025; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kirschke, Glahe and Kirschke. 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: Sabrina Kirschke, Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
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