«Scientific Culture» as an Epistemological Foundation for Public Communication of Science

Abstract

In this paper we present an analysis of the field of public communication of science seen through the prism of public understanding of science. Our purpose is to analyze the epistemological problems of public communication of science and to clarify a main issue concerning the kind of knowledge involved in understanding and public communication of science. We review the fundamentals and implications of the two main theoretical models of public understanding of science applied to the field of communication. Finally, we propose a communication model based on a particular notion of scientific culture to enable a new theoretical and practical approach to understanding and public communication of science.

Keywords

• comprensión pública de la ciencia
• comunicación pública de la ciencia
• problemas epistemológicos
• popularización de la ciencia
• alfabetización científica
• cultura científica