Science and popular science journalism: difficulties of definition and media typology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28925/2311-259x.2021.3.3Keywords:
science journalism, popular science journalism, scientific media discourseAbstract
This article is relevant because there is a need for scientific differentiation of two related categories of modern communication: science journalism and popular science journalism. There is no stable approach to this problem in the Ukrainian discourse, and the current normative documents force the editorial offices to determine the type of activity not according to the specifics of the media, but according to the list available, for example, in GOST. The object of the research were world and Ukrainian media specialized in scientific topics: “Cosmos”, “Popular Science”, “Discover”, “Scientific American”, “Kunsht”, “Spilne”, “Svitohliad”, “Vselennaya, prostranstvo, vremya”, “Science Ukraine”, “Alpha Centauri”, “Nauka i tekhnika”, “Kraina znan”, “Vichnyi mandrivnyk”, “Lokalna istoriia”, “Istoriia. Novyi pohliad”, “Malovidoma istoriia: daleke i blyzke”. At the same time, we analyzed digital practices (web resources), as well as traditional paper media (magazines). The subject of study is the peculiarities of the definition of scientific and popular science journalism and the complexity of the typology of the corresponding media. The main research method was comparative analysis, which, supported by discourse analysis, made it possible, firstly, to compare the existing scientific views on the categories of “scientific journalism” and “popular science journalism” and highlight the main features of each. Secondly, using these methods, an analysis of the world’s leading resources specializing in science journalism was carried out and parallels with this type of Ukrainian media were made.
The result of the study is the typological differentiation of modern Ukrainian media resources. The study was based on the hypothesis that the characteristics of the audience and the functional specificity of the resource are decisive factors in terms of differentiation of the media as science and popular science. According to it, those media that are oriented towards advanced users, focus on the latest achievements of science and technology and restrained use online opportunities, almost without resorting to methods of edutainment and sciencetainment, we attribute to the channels of science journalism. The media that combine directions for the mass user, focus on the educational component and different popular pseudo-scientific topics with prolonged potential relevance, we refer to popular science journalism. Taking into audience and functional factors we include following projects of science journalism: “Kunsht”, “Spilne”, “Svitohliad”, “Vselennaya, prostranstvo, vremya”, “Science Ukraine”, “Alpha Centauri”, “Nauka i tekhnika”, “Kraina znan”. “Vichnyi mandrivnyk”, “Lokalna istoriia”, “Istoriia. Novyi pohliad”, “Malovidoma istoriia: daleke i blyzke” we refer to popular science journalism.
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