Communicating Science to broad audiences, as well as basic scientific and media literacy, are fundamental elements of developed democratic societies. If, in the late 1990s the “information highways” promised unrestricted access to knowledge for individual and collective improvement, the dawn of the 21st century showed the limitations of this Enlightenment hope. Social networks, the algorithmic management of information and its dissemination, a new digital capitalism that recomposes itself from the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) have created a toxic ecosystem for moderation and thoughtfulness and ideal for the extreme disinformation and polarization that accompanied the rise of populism. The race for attention in this ecosystem is war-like. And as in the adage of journalists, the first casualty of any war comes to be the truth.
In the current media ecosystem, in which social networks assume the highest influence in the distribution of news content, journalists and the media have lost informative authority. At the same time, scientific discoveries have been increasingly contested and the target of judgments that ignore the facts, and prioritize a biased opinion limited to pre-existing beliefs. The ideal of truth, which, along with scientific factuality and objectivity, deserved the respect of society and contributed to the evolution of humanity, is strongly disturbed. It was this ideal of truth, pursued by scientists, academics, and journalists, that strengthened the credibility of democratic public institutions. However today an unlikely combination of social and political factors has led to the erosion of truth and the authority of science, ushering in the so-called post-truth era, a kind of twilight zone in which there is an unprecedented tolerance for lying, imprecision and subjectivity.
This toxic environment for truth and information is often analyzed within the scope of journalism studies, since traditionally disinformation, combined with propaganda, was mainly political. With the extreme polarization in the new ecosystem, the era of omni-disinformation with political motivations extends to many other fields of human activity, having extended in the last two years, and with special violence, to Science Communication.
QWhen the Covid-19 pandemic was declared in 2020, accompanied by measures to restrict individual freedoms all over the world, the context was created for the disinformation crisis, until then mainly a political weapon, to extend to the field of science, with serious consequences for public health and the erosion of trust in institutions – media, scientists, the pharmaceutical industry, and public health authorities in charge of decisions and coordination in the fight against the pandemic.
This work reflects on the crisis of disinformation in the field of science, and its use as a political weapon to destabilize and erode democracies. In the great federation of all the discontents that the new populism feeds on, science disinformation has also become a weapon, with direct consequences on the ability to make informed decisions and to the performance of democracy.
Topics of interest for this Conference are:
• Role of Science Communication in the fight against disinformation
• Authority and credibility of journalism in times of “disinfodemic”
• Authority and credibility of scientists in times of “disinfodemic”
• Image authority and credibility in times of “disinfodemic”
• Conspiracy theories: origin, diffusion, objectives, format, etc.
• Science communication and trust in institutions
• Vulnerability of audiences: advertising and persuasion
• Science communication in the media: qualitative and quantitative analysis
• Strategies, case studies, pilot projects for better science communication
• Media literacy and scientific literacy
• News consumption and “News avoidance”
• Role of fact-checkers in the new media ecosystem
• Star-system, influencers and misinformation
• Social networks and science communication: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Tik.tok
The Organization of the IV International Conference on Communicating Science invites the submission of communication proposals on the generic theme "Disinformation during the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic", in one of the following areas of interest:
Abstract (.PDF)
The abstract of the communication proposals, up to a maximum of 500 words, written in
Portuguese, English or Spanish, must include the title, theme and relevance of the intended
essay, research question and hypothesis to be explored, conceptual and methodological
framework, expected results (if applicable), 3 to 5 keywords, and (preferably, but not
necessarily) up to 5 bibliographic references. Title, keywords, and references do not count
towards the referred word limit. The abstract cannot contain any element that identifies the
author(s) of the proposal. The file must be submitted in PDF.
Abstract’s submission
The abstract must be submitted by July 15, 2022, sending an email to
comunicarciencia@labcom.ubi.pt.
We ask the authors / participants to write “Submission of
Proposal / Abstract” in the email’s Subject and to include the following information in the email
itself: Full Name, Contact Email (you can register a primary and a secondary email if you find
that ensures the success of our mutual communication), Affiliation Institution (University,
Department, Research Centre, Company, Others), and Profession / Occupation. This information
must be repeated for all the authors associated with the submitted proposal, respecting the
order by which their names will be listed in the final paper.
Each participant may submit a maximum of three proposals, one as the main author and two in
co-authorship (in which he/she may be the second author, third author and so on).
Review
The submitted abstracts will be evaluated within the scope of a blind peer review process. The
ones with greater relevance, originality and adequacy to the theme and purposes of the
Conference will be selected. The proposals which, after double peer review, do not meet these
criteria will be excluded.
Notification
The authors with selected abstracts will be notified of their acceptance until July 30, 2022.
Submission of the final paper
The full version of the paper corresponding to the communication proposal must be submitted
by October 30, 2022, following the Submission Rules which will be available for this purpose at
the Conference’s website.
Review of the final paper
Once received, the paper will be reviewed by members of the Scientific Committee and, if
necessary, the author(s) will be notified about the need to make any changes deemed
necessary and recommended by the reviewers.
Working languages
Portuguese, English, and Spanish
NOTES
1. The deadline for submission of abstracts will not be extended.
2. The paper’s publication (both in print and digital format) will not require the payment of any
additional fee to the one already established to register and participate in the Conference.
3. As per usual in the context of scientific events, the submission of the paper’s final version
presupposes the tacit transfer of its publishing rights to the University of Beira Interior.
4. Obtaining authorization to publish any images included in the papers is the responsibility of
their authors.
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This information will be available as briefly as possible. Thank you for understanding!
Registration and Participation Fees / Exemptions
General fee for authors with accepted proposals: 60 euros (50 euros for online participations)
Fee for authors with accepted proposals (MA Students, PhD Students, Researchers): 40 euros (30 euros for online participations)
General fee for participants without communication (in presence or online, with access to participation certificate and Conference supporting materials): 10 euros (requires registration)
Participation without communication, without certificate and without access to the Conference’s supporting materials: Free (no registration required)
Exemptions (relating to participations with communication): Faculty, students, and researchers from University of Beira Interior. All participants must still submit their registration (which, in these cases, will be necessary as confirmation of attendance)
How to formalize the registration
To formalize the registration, each author with an accepted communication proposal, as well as all the participants without communication who wish to have access to a certificate and to the Conference’s supporting materials, must send, by email (comunicarciencia@labcom.ubi.pt), until September 5, proof of payment of the respective fee, accompanied by the following information:
1. Full name
2. Affiliation (University, Faculty and/or Department, Research Centre, Other)
3. Profession / Occupation
4. Contact email (primary and secondary, if applicable)
5. NIF (or Passport Number, if applicable) that must appear on the issued receipt
6. Address (required to issue the receipt)
7. Students must attach proof of enrollment
8. Participation option (presence / online)
Payment procedures
Bank transfer
Recipient Entity:
Universidade da Beira Interior
Bank:
Santander
IBAN:
PT50 0018 0003 2322 0304 0208 9
SWIFT:
TOTAPTPL
Contact
When formalizing the registration, the emails should be sent to: Catarina Moura (comunicarciencia@labcom.ubi.pt)
Authors
The authors with accepted proposals must necessarily pay the corresponding registration fee, respecting the deadline defined for this purpose (September 5, 2022), since this procedure will ensure their presence on the Conference’s program and Book of Abstracts, as well as the publication of their papers. When a proposal has several authors, at least one of them must be registered.
To authors with accepted communication proposals, registering gives access to:
— Being part of both the Conference’s program and the Book of Abstracts
— Participation certificate
— Conference’s supporting materials
— Publication of the final paper (with ISBN)
— Main meals (2 lunches and 1 dinner) throughout the duration of the Conference
Important dates:
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: July 15This information will be available as briefly as possible. Thank you for understanding!
Ada Cristina Machado Silveira, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM
Amélia Augusto, Universidade da Beira Interior
Ana Catarina Pereira, Universidade da Beira Interior
Ana Leonor Santos, Universidade da Beira Interior
Ana Paula Duarte
Anabela Carvalho, Universidade do Minho
Anabela Gradim, Universidade da Beira Interior
Anabela Oliveira, UTAD
André Azevedo da Fonseca, Universidade Estadual de Londrina
André Barata, Universidade da Beira Interior
Bernardo Gómez Calderón, Universidade de Málaga
Bruno Reis, UBI/ Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa
Carla Baptista, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Carla Cerqueira, Universidade Lusófona
Carlos Camponez, Universidade de Coimbra
Catarina Burnay, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Catarina Moura, Universidade da Beira Interior
Catarina Rodrigues, Universidade dos Açores
Cátia Rijo, Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa
Cecília Santos, Universidade da Beira Interior
Cláudia Álvares, ISCTE
Cristina Marques Gomes, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM
Eduardo Paz Barroso, Universidade Fernando Pessoa
Enric Saperas, Universidade Rey Juan Carlos
Fábio Ribeiro, UTAD
Fabrizio Macagno, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Fernando Zamith, Universidade do Porto
Flávia G. Rosa
Francisco Javier Paniagua Rojano, Universidade de Málaga
Gil Baptista Ferreira, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra
Gisela Gonçalves, Universidade da Beira Interior
Gustavo Cardoso, ISCTE
Heitor Costa Lima da Rocha, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Helena Lima, Universidade do Porto
Helena Sousa, Universidade do Minho
Inês Amaral, Universidade de Coimbra
Irene de Araújo Machado, Universidade de São Paulo
Isaltina Maria de Azevedo Mello Gomes, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Ivone Ferreira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
João Canavilhas, Universidade da Beira Interior
João Correia, Universidade da Beira Interior
Joaquim Paulo Serra, Universidade da Beira Interior
Jorge Pedro Sousa, Universidade Fernando Pessoa
Jorge Trindade, ESCS-IPL
José Ferreira Gomes, Universidade do Porto
José Luís Garcia, Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa
José Manuel Azevedo, Universidade do Porto
José Manuel Gomes Pinto, Universidade Lusófona
Juan José Igartua, Universidade de Salamanca
Luís António Santos, Universidade do Minho
Luís Bonixe, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre
Manuel Bogalheiro, Universidade Lusófona
Marcos Palácios, Universidade Federal da Bahia
Maria Augusta Babo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Maria da Luz Correia, Universidade dos Açores
Maria do Céu Fonseca, Universidade de Évora
Maria João Centeno, Escola Superior de Comunicação Social
Maria José Brites, Universidade Lusófona
Maria Manuel Borges, Universidade de Coimbra
Mariana Guenther Soares, Universidade de Pernambuco (UPE)
Marisa Torres da Silva, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Marlene Loureiro, UTAD
Marta Cristina Sánchez Esparza, Universidade Rey Juan Carlos
Miriam Rodríguez Pallares, Universidade Complutense de Madrid
Mirian Rejowski, Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São
Mirian Tavares, Universidade do Algarve
Nelson Zagalo, Universidade de Aveiro
Nuno Correia de Brito, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa
Paula do Espírito Santo, Universidade de Lisboa (ISCSP)
Paulo Trincão, Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra
Paulo
Pedro Coelho, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Pedro Pinto de Oliveira, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso
Raul Ramalho, Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Norte
Rita Salvado, UBI, Museu dos Lanifícios
Samuel Mateus, Universidade da Madeira
Sandra Tuna, Universidade Fernando Pessoa
Sílvia Socorro, Universidade da Beira Interior
Teresa Franqueira, Universidade de Aveiro
Valeriano Naval, Universidade de Salamanca
Vasco Branco, Universidade de Aveiro
Vasco Ribeiro, da Universidade do Porto
Vítor Amaral, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda
Anabela Gradim
Catarina Moura
João Baptista
Anabela Gradim
Catarina Moura
João Baptista
Beatriz Botelho
Daniel Baldaia
General / Informations
comunicarciencia@labcom.ubi.pt
Address
Universidade da Beira Interior
LabCom — Comunicação e Artes
Avenida Marquês d’Ávila e Bolama
6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal
Secretary of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Mércia Pires
+351 275242023 / ext. 1201
