Science Communication in Context of China: Reducing the Regional Imbalance
Science communication is influenced by various factors of social context, such as politics, economy, culture and history, and these factors have different impact on science communication in different time and space domain. China is a country with appreciable regional diversity, where exist huge gap in economic, social, educational and science and technology development. The imbalance in development makes social context of science communication a prominent feature in the country. In China, the demand of citizens on science communication presents diversified and complex features, which were intensified by the leapfrog development of science communication pattern. Based upon above considerations, China is taking public science communication strategy in a localized way by government and the society as well. This paper discusses the functions which science communication played in reducing the regional imbalance in China.
Social Context of Science Communication: Local Science Communication Strategy
The article focuses on ‘social context’ research in the area of science communication. It further proposes to take social context as a research perspective and analysis methodology to tackle the issue of strategic planning in science communication. The survey of journals reveals that the number of papers published on the social context of science communication is far limited compared to other issues that have been dealt with by the scholars working in this area. The article makes a case for conducting deeper research on definition and description of contextual-science-communication. There is sufficient literature available on comparative studies in science communication and public understanding of science, however since most of the scholars have not taken ‘social context’ into account, it provides limited understanding of reality across cultures.
Characteristics of Chinese public demands on science communication
In recent years, there taken place vast improvement in public science communication work in China. The government's original motivation and end of public science communication is to fulfill various demands of the nation and lay public. Meanwhile, there appeared the concept of science communication on people's livelihood, which intends to emphasis that science communication should be an important public service for improving people's livelihood. According to latest survey data of public demands on science communication in China, Chinese public generally has continuous and exuberant requirements on science communication. The main catachrestic of Chinese people's demands on science communication can be summarized as follows: public demands tend to be more multiple and individual. There are distinct differences among social groups in science communication demands. There is an obvious change in channels by which Chinese public get access to science information. While traditional media, such as TV and newspaper, remain the major way for Chinese people to get informed of science information, the important role of Internet and other new media catches more and more attention. Lastly, Chinese public demands on science communication tend to be utilitarian. Relevant research findings of this study can be meaningful references for China and other countries to carry science communication work forward.