2025/10/20 by Liliann Fischer, Mike S. Schäfer, Hannah Schmid-Petri · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception
paper · pdf · doi:10.22323/148320250924054927
openalex publication_date 2025/10/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/21 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
This paper proposes a framework to guide cross-national, comparative research on science communication. Current research often relies on ad-hoc criteria for selecting countries (such as geographic proximity) or on pragmatic considerations (like data availability), which may limit the ability to capture broader contexts or identify the cases best suited for analysis. Drawing on the ecosystems concept, we integrate theoretical perspectives on political systems, academic systems, and media systems to identify a set of ideational and structural factors that are essential for understanding country variations in science communication: political system settings, the role of the state/market, political attention to science communication, and societal values and norms. Based on these, we suggest (and preliminarily illustrate) a typology of four ideal-types of science communication ecosystems — public-service-oriented, market-oriented, state-centred and fragmented — that could guide and should be tested in future research.