Abstract

SOTERIO, Carolina  and  QUEIROZ, Salete Linhares. Elaboration of Popular Science Texts on COVID-19 in Higher Education Chemistry: Content Analysis in Focus. NTQR [online]. 2022, vol.12, e596.  Epub Aug 25, 2022. ISSN 2184-7770.  https://doi.org/10.36367/ntqr.12.2022.e596.

Introduction: The importance of public communication of science and technology (PCST) became evident in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought scientists closer to popular media in an unprecedented way. However, the training of these professionals to communicate with non-specialist audiences is still incipient. Thinking about contributing to initiatives that aim to meet this need, an environment of a PST magazine was simulated in which chemistry bachelor students, in the role of science journalists, were invited to write popular science texts (PST) on COVID-19. Goals: This work aims to analyze the textual content produced by students, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of PST. Methods: To this end, the foundations of Content Analysis (CA) were used, which allowed the characterization of PST from the perspective of recurrent elements in this type of production. From this perspective, the material analyzed was submitted to a five-step process: (i) preparation of information; (ii) transformation of content into units of analysis; (iii) categorization of the material, which emerged from a PST Analytical Framework; (iv) description of the categories; (v) and interpretation of results. Results: The students used visual and textual resources to appeal to the reader's attention; showed concern with the contextualization of information; and dissemination of an undistorted view of scientific production, from the detailing of the characteristics of scientific activity. It was also shown that PST with less use of linguistic features can result in more conceptual and technical approaches. Conclusions: This experience corroborated the students' potential to promote information about science to lay audiences, as they are close to both the non-specialized public and the academic community; and reinforced the applicability of CA to relate analytical categories of PST reported in the literature to more particular cases, such as the one described here.

Keywords : Content Analysis; Popular Science Texts; Chemistry Teaching; COVID-19..

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