Bridging the Communication Gap in Science and Technology

This first-of-a-kind volume provides a snapshot of existing science communication policy and practice in India across different S&T sectors, and offers solutions to building effective communication. It provides an understanding on how to avoid societal clashes in situations when science meets the public in these sectors. The editors and contributors argue that effective S&T communication leads not only to a more informed public but also benefits research itself, and in a changing society like India this is a crucial element related to good governance and policy making. Experienced masters of the trade provide practical solutions to making S&T communication effective in a vast democracy like India, which has complex issues related to literacy levels, diverse languages, varying political will, reach, and resources. Through discussions on cases of creating information modules for the public on the Internet, television and radio, new social media, as well as traditional ways of outreach like holding popular science congresses and fairs, the book provides highly valuable directions on how developing countries with low resources and complex populations can communicate their S&T research to the public and bridge communication gaps.§§The book will interest researchers from mass communication and public relations departments, journalists, as well as practitioners and policy makers from government and non-government institutions involved in S&T policy and communication.§§