What are public universities doing so that scientific knowledge is no longer alien to 99 percent of society? It depends on your intentions and who you want to reach. They can disseminate, disseminate or communicate science.
Diffusion, for example, is the communication that scientists make of their research: chemists speak of Chemistry, biologists of Biology, each specialist explains what their work is about or the importance of it, it generally depends more on their achievements, and it seldom evaluates whether its message impacted other sectors.
Dissemination seeks the same thing but through various channels to reach the broadest possible public -simplifying or recreating science- but in both cases, it is the scientists or disseminators who decide the necessary science or a priority to disseminate, what is the message, how to present it and to whom, almost always without feedback from those who receive the message, that is, the communication is one-way.
However, the communication of science, and specifically the public communication of science, seek first to know social needs to know what and how to influence, support, and contribute to social well-being, taking as a starting point the vision and context of others, of that 99 percent who do not do science and sometimes do not even know it.
From this perspective, in addition to promoting scientific work, it is possible to share the knowledge that is most relevant to citizens, and maybe produce things like microneedle which is linked to their concerns and needs in which the knowledge that the University welcomes and generates is relevant, such as change climate and its effects on the most vulnerable communities, for example.
Also, the communication of science seeks to generate specific responses in specific communities: from knowledge, the generation of opinions, or the change of attitudes to the adoption of habits and practices or the use of knowledge derived from research for decision-making.
As the public communication of science considers people’s needs and problems, it needs to divide the formerly called “general public” into groups, either because of their knowledge of a subject and its context, because of their age, schooling, language, geographic location. Technological literacy, access to communication channels, interests, etc.
The products, media, channels, and supports used in science communication vary: from journalistic texts to audiovisual productions, plays, workshops or long-term community work, exhibitions, electronic pages, information capsules, interviews, posters, e-books, podcasts, museums, graphic novels, and others, or a combination of them. The foremost thing in science communication is the strategy’s design -with clear objectives and target audiences-, the means and formats to carry it out remain in the background.