Ethnography of Science Communication

An ethnographic study of the practices, actors, and audiences involved in communicating science. It observes science communicators (journalists, social media influencers, museum educators), their institutional contexts (newsrooms, PR offices), and their interactions with publics. It also studies how audiences interpret, ignore, or resist scientific messages, and how trust and credibility are negotiated. Unlike surveys (which measure outcomes), ethnography captures the messy, real-time dynamics of communication—the jokes, the misunderstandings, the moments of genuine connection or alienation. It often reveals how science communication reproduces social hierarchies (e.g., who gets asked to speak, whose questions are taken seriously).

Ethnography of Science Communication Example: “The ethnography of a science museum exhibit showed that visitors from working-class backgrounds felt excluded not because they didn’t understand the facts, but because the museum’s tone assumed a middle-class comfort with abstract inquiry—a social barrier, not a cognitive one.”

Ethnography of Science Communication by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 1, 2026