Journalism between Science and Development: A Decolonised and Dewesternised Normative Framework.

Abstract

This special issue was initiated out of concern for a pressing situation: the interplay between science, journalism and development in the Global South – which occupies such a central part of the modernisation, industrialisation and globalisation of our contemporary world – has been left almost uncharted by scholars for too long. Even research into the general functions, practices and impacts of science journalism of the Global South remains an extreme rarity (Massarani 2013; Nguyen and Tran 2019; Schäfer 2012), accounting for, for instance, 0.02% of all papers in Public Understanding of Science during 2000-2017, and appearing infrequently in leading journalism journals, with most being based on descriptive content analysis (Nguyen and Tran 2019). For journalism scholarship, this state of research represents a missed opportunity on both theoretical and practical levels. Placing science journalism in the context of Global South development could stimulate new conceptual and theoretical frameworks to enrich our limited understanding of the multifaceted relationship between scientific and technological advances, the news media, and developmental causes and processes. Further, it would provide invaluable and unique insights into the diverse but largely uncharted journalistic cultures in non-Northern societies, thus constituting an effective response to the repeated, but largely unfollowed, calls for de-westernising media and journalism studies in recent decades (Yin 2021; Wang 2014). More practically, such improved understanding could be transformed into operational tools to evaluate, foster and enhance science journalism for the sake of local and global sustainable development. Over the long term, it might help boost the capabilities of the South – and for that matter, the world – in reducing its traditionally heavy dependence on the North for both scientific expertise and science news output. As an initial and modest attempt to address this situation, this introductory paper will (a) review the intersection between science, journalism and development from a historical perspective, (b) propose normative directions for science journalism of the Global South, (c) contrast that normative framework with the rather weak state of science journalism across the South, (d) identify potential solutions to current problems; and (e) propose a research agenda for the future. I will start from a discussion of the geo-political nature of the international development agenda and how it shapes the science-journalism-development relationship. Of focus will be the “deficit model” and its simplistically assumed role of science journalism as science popularisation, both of which arose out of the “development through modernisation” paradigm. Against the backdrop of the limitations of this now largely discredited model, I will propose a framework of theoretical and practical principles that might help steer science journalism practice and research in the Global South to the betterment of humankind. This framework entails four normative dimensions – glocalisation, decolonisation, indigenisation and dewesternisation – and invites scholars to a rich range of research opportunities that I will outline towards the end.