Six members of ScienceFlows attended PCST2018, in Dunedin, New Zealand
ISABEL MENDOZA POUDEREUX// The Public Communication Network of Science and Technology (PSCT) held from 4-6 April 2018, its XV PCST, in Dunedin, New Zealand. This conference is the one with the greatest international relevance in the field of scientific communication, bringing together professionals from all over the world, including journalists specialized in STEM (science and technology), representatives of scientific institutions, such as museums. and the entire academic and research community.
The general theme of PCST2018 was “Science, Stories and Society – the Soul of Science Communication”, in addition to a series of subtopics, the congress has been open to presentations in many different formats, including round tables, discussion of articles, posters and thematic workshops. The program of the meeting, including the invited speakers, may be consulted at www.pcst.co, as well as on the congress website itself: www.pcst2018.org. The opening gala took place on Tuesday, April 3, at the Regent Theater, in downtown Dunedin, with a guest lecture by Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, principal scientist of the Hubble Space Telescope project.
Carolina Moreno, Vanessa Roger, Mavi Corell, Lorena Cano, Emilia Lopera and Isabel Mendoza, members of ScienceFlows traveled to Dunedin to participate in the conference with eight papers developed under the frame of the ESTENAS project, 6 communications and 2 posters.
On April 4, from 10:45 to 12:00 pm, Carolina Moreno presented the communication A study about knowledge and attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among teacher training students: a pilot study based on open ended questionnaires. In this session, the results obtained in a pilot study were presented, with 209 questionnaires, which included a closed question and three open questions to the standard CHBQ questionnaire. The pilot study was carried out by gathering the questions from the teaching students of two Valencian universities (Unviersitat de València and Florida Universitaria).
On April 5, from 10:45 to 12:00 pm, Lorena Cano presented the communication Coverage comparison of homeopathy and acupuncture stories in Spanish digital media. In this session results of a comparative study of 2,513 digital press news about homeopathy and acupuncture, between 2015 and 2016, was presented.
On April 5, from 10:45 to 12:00 pm, Emilia Lopera presented the communication Evaluation of attitudes towards CAM among budding science storytellers: medicine, nursing, journalism and teaching undergraduate students. In this sesión were presented the results obtained with CHBQ questionnaires filled by students of teaching, journalism, nursing and medicine to understand their positioning before complementary and alternative therapies (CAM).
On April 5, from 10:45 to 12:00 pm, Isabel Mendoza presented the communication Stories of complementary therapies in the Spanish digital newspapers. In this session part of the results collected in a database containing thousands of news about CAM, selected from 391 Spanish digital media, between 2015-2016 were presented.
On April 6, from 3:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Mavi Corell presented the communication “It actually works for me”: the presence of homeopathy in the Spanish digital press. In this session some of the results of the semantic analysis of three Spanish digital media between the years 2015-2016 were presented.
On April 6, from 3:30 to 4:45 pm, Vanessa Roger presented the communication It will not hurt you. It’s natural: the treatment of alternative therapies in Spanish women’s magazines. In this session, part of the results of the content analysis of the ten main monthly women’s magazines, between the years 2015-2016, were presented.
In addition to the communications, two posters of the ongoing research project ESTENAS were presented.
On April 5, from 5:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Vanessa Roger presented the Youtube poster: to be or not to be science. This poster showed and shared part of the results of the content analysis of YouTube videos dedicated to alternative therapies.
On April 5, from 5:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Mavi Corell presented the poster Attitudes and perceptions of training teaching students about alternative and complementary medicines: a focus group study. This session showed and shared part of the results of the discussion groups held during 2016 with teaching students from different Valencian universities, who were asked about the use and knowledge of CAM.
Additionally, Carolina Moreno presented on April 4 the poster Who tells the science stories in Spain? Survey among the members of associations of science communicators. This poster showed and shared the results obtained from a survey carried out by the Spanish Association of Scientific Communication among the members of different associations of science communicators, with the aim of knowing the professional profiles of who we work in the sector.