Conveying the Message – Communicating Complex Science to Non-Experts

Science is expected to yield information that is useful to society. It provides us with facts and their logical correlations - but also with uncertainties. In the past years, the public focus on science and the methodology and communication of science seems to have increased. Terms like ‘facts’, ‘fake news’ and ‘post-factual times’ are frequently used in daily news coverage.
At the same time, the means of communication have evolved and there are plenty of options to reach your audience, for example through classical presentations using PowerPoint, but also through short films, social media, blogs etc.

Science communication is more than simply translating the jargon of science into a language the public or your peers from other fields understand. While we will always want to make sure to get the content of our message right, how we communicate is also crucial. The different media can help us to illustrate the story we want to share. But it is also the mind-set and attitude of the presenter that can make a real difference.

In this course, the lecturer invites you to re-think ways of presenting science, develop your own ‘philosophy’ of science communication, and to discover new means of telling a story by using different media with different approaches.

More information and the registration can be found on the course webpage.