Change the medium, change the message: creativity is key to battle misinformation

Abstract

Marshall McLuhan's groundbreaking work regarding the role of context and medium in communication is very relevant today. By limiting the medium of science communication to dense, jargon-rich academic journals, we restrict the impact of discovery to the scientific community. We are also allowing the propagation of misinformation, as the nonexpert is forced to resource unreliable media to answer their scientific queries. To compete with pseudoscience, we need to improve science literacy and make science accessible through the same media on which pseudoscience thrives. As scientists and educators, we believe it is our responsibility to reconceptualize science literacy as a lifelong process and take greater accountability over the future of science communication. We hypothesize that increasing the accessibility of scientific literature to the public through adopting mainstream media forms and increasing access to informal science education (ISE) opportunities will decrease the proliferation of pseudoscience. To accomplish this, we propose eight recommendations housed under three action areas: 1) modify undergraduate science education by increasing opportunities for informal science communication, 2) increase accessibility to informal science education, and 3) bridge the gap between formal and informal science learning opportunities.

Keywords: general public; pseudoscience; science communication; science literacy; undergraduate education.