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| Principali Pubblicazioni - Articoli |
| Infectious disease and governance of global risks through public communication and participation |
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| In recent years a succession of health emergencies connected with the threat of new,
possibly global, infectious diseases has stimulated the attention of the mass media, the scientific
community, and international public opinion, setting a tough test for the institutions whose job is
to manage the risks. On the basis of experience in the fields of AIDS, BSE, SARS and bird flu, this
study discusses the strong and weak points of governance procedures for health risks. In particular,
the paper illustrates how risk management can be improved by adopting practices and procedures
which actively involve the public in dealing with the emergency, by taking a transparent and accessible
approach to communication with the public (including the provision of information about the
risks) and by fostering the unrestricted exchange of scientific knowledge among researchers. Lastly,
the text shows how the analysis of these themes provides starting points for understanding the crisis
in the current relationship between science and society. |
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2007 - Nico Pitrelli, Giancarlo Sturloni; Annali dell’Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Vol. 3, p. 336-343.
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| The role play by stakeholders in the public debate that brought Italy out of the club of nuclear energy producers |
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| In 1964, Italy was the fourth largest world producer of electricity generated by nuclear reactors,
second in Europe only to United Kingdom. In subsequent years, various controversial political events
contributed towards drastically slowing down the development of the Italian national nuclear programme.
The 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident, which caused a public outcry all over Europe, had
particularly serious repercussions in Italy. In a controversial referendum, held in November 1987, Italian
citizens voted to repeal three laws promoting the installation of nuclear power plants (NPP) on the Italian soil
and allowing the National Institute for Electrical Energy (ENEL) to participate in the construction of NPP's
abroad. This work analyses the reasons for that decision and the communication strategies of the
stakeholders that took part in the public debate on nuclear energy during the weeks following the Chernobyl
accident. Drawing from the methodologies used in media studies, a quantitative and qualitative analysis of
two leading Italian newspapers was performed.
The results reveal that a variety of stakeholders, upholding different values and interests, took part in the
debate. There being no tradition of a public dialogue and participation in Italy, the debate was polarised to a
"yes/no choice" which eventually caused Italy to abandon the production of nuclear power for civil use.
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2007 - Marie Claire Cantone, Giancarlo Brunelli, Giancarlo Sturloni; Health Physics Journal, Vol. 93, p. 261-266.
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| Science Communication after September 11 |
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| The great impact of September 11 on society and public opinion is still there for everyone to see. But the terrorist attack and the anthrax letters circulating in the U.S. in October 2001 have greatly affected the mechanisms of science communication as well – a tangible evidence is the Statement on Scientific Publication and Security of February 2003. In what way was it mirrored in lay press and scientific journals?
We analysed articles on bioterrorism published by a daily newspaper, the American New York Times, and two scientific journals, Science and Nature. The identified articles were then grouped into seven different topics: science, health, research policy, security, politics, economics and ethics. Surprisingly, politics and economics make up together for 22% of the articles analysed for Science, and the percentage goes up to 34% for Nature – figures similar or even much higher than those found in the New York Times (23%).
The debate on bioterrorism seems therefore to have deeply influenced science communication, opening up for ethical, political and economic aspects in the narration of science, which further deepen the links between science and society.
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2006 - Giancarlo Sturloni; Maria Chiara Montani; The 9th International Conference on Public Communication of Science and Technology, Seoul
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| Science in advertising: uses and consumptions in the Italian press |
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| Among the social practices that the world of advertising draws upon in order
to convey its message, science is used to convince the target audience of the
effectiveness of the product it is promoting. The study of the presence and
use of science to encourage consumer spending provides information on the
public perception of science itself. The present work analyzes these aspects
with reference to the Italian press. A quantitative study was carried out on a
sample of daily, weekly and monthly publications throughout 2002 and 2003,
using a coding frame that enabled the identification of the frequency of
scientific messages in advertising, the occurrence of scientific content in the
images, the context in which they are set and the type of language used. The
results demonstrate that science has a consistent presence in advertising and
the image of science that derives from this is a positive one.
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2006 - Nico Pitrelli, Federica Manzoli, Barbara Montolli; Public Understanding of Science, 15(2)
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| Scienza e società oggi |
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| L’influenza della conoscenza scientifica nelle società contemporanee è ormai un luogo
comune. Elemento cruciale per la supremazia militare ed economica, fonte
di alcuni tra i grandi dilemmi della nostra epoca, motore per lo sviluppo e
la competizione capitalistica, straordinaria forza culturale, la scienza ha cambiato per
sempre il nostro modo di produrre, di comprare, di spostarci, di comunicare. Ha
contribuito a riorganizzare il lavoro, ridistribuire la violenza e la ricchezza, ridefinire
l’ingiustizia e la demografia, ridisegnare le città e i mercati, plasmare le campagne e i
mezzi di trasporto.
Questo luogo comune ne porta con sé un altro: quello dell’ambivalenza dei rapporti tra
scienza e società. Come è ben rappresentato nei media, nella letteratura, nell’arte,
l’immagine pubblica della scienza è a volte quella di un’impresa razionale per eccellenza;
altre volte quella di un’attività dai connotati quasi magici.
Capire quanto ci sia di vero in questi luoghi comuni non è un problema superfluo. Dalle
immagini pubbliche della scienza, può dipendere l’accettazione o il rifiuto di una teoria;
su di loro si basa non solo il confine che distingue la scienza dalla politica, dalla
religione, da altre forme di conoscenza ma anche le scelte sulle ricerche future.
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2006 - Nico Pitrelli; PRISTEM/Storia
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