ABSTRACT
The field of science communication is plagued by challenges. Communicators face the difficulty of responding to unjustified public skepticism over issues like climate change and COVID-19 while also acknowledging the fallibility and limitations of scientific knowledge. Our goal in this paper is to suggest a new model for science communication that can help foster more productive, respectful relationships among all those involved in science communication. Inspired by the pragmatist philosophy of John Dewey, we develop an experience model, according to which science communication consists in people’s experiences with science and the meanings they develop from those experiences. Three principles are central to the model: experience is cumulative, context matters, and audiences have agency. We argue that this model has significant implications both for communication research and practice, which we illustrate by applying it to the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy. We show how science communicators can help to identify and alleviate structural factors that contribute to skepticism as well as fostering opportunities for meaning making around shared experiences. © 2022 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 healthcare crisis and the resulting “stay-at-home” orders have created many obstacles for physicians across disciplines who are trying to maintain the standard of care. This is particularly true for epilepsy patients with uncontrolled seizures who often require frequent ambulatory visits, ancillary testing, and even inpatient monitoring. The American Epilepsy Society statement on COVID-19 advises epilepsy centers to utilize remote care options such as telephone, telehealth, and electronic health record messaging to manage their patients, a treatment model that is largely new to epilepsy care. The urgent move to a remote care model is underscored by the International League Against Epilepsy, which advised physicians to counsel patients that they could experience an increase in seizures due to decreased access to antiepileptic medications (AEDs) and increased stress during COVID-19. Indeed, viral infection has been hypothesized to be one of the important causative factors of febrile seizures,1 though the risk of seizures due to COVID-19 and its related fevers remain debated.2 Novel remote-care options are thus needed during a crisis like this to ensure the best care possible for epilepsy patients.[truncated]