Conference Program

Processes of platformization and deep mediatization (Hepp 2020) characterizing the contemporary communication ecosystem are profoundly transforming science communication, redefining the boundaries between information, education, and entertainment (Bucchi, Trench 2021). In this context, the circulation of scientific knowledge increasingly takes place through short, visual, and highly accessible content produced by content creators and thematic pages operating outside the institutional circuits of academic and journalistic communication (Schäfer 2016). As a result, a model of pop science communication is emerging that, on the one hand, expands the potential to engage broad and non-specialist publics, and on the other raises critical issues related to information quality, epistemic legitimation, and public responsibility.

This paper offers a first theoretical and exploratory overview of science communication on social media, aiming to interpret pop science not merely as an emerging communicative style, but as a form of distributed epistemic mediation within the platform society (van Dijck et al. 2018; Zeng et al. 2021). From this perspective, digital platforms are understood as epistemic infrastructures that intervene in processes of visibility, legitimation, and circulation of knowledge, shaping the ways in which scientific information becomes intelligible, credible, and socially relevant.

The study investigates how science is narrated through platform-native formats, which rhetorical strategies and credibility devices are mobilized by science communicators, and how they position themselves between entertainment, epistemic authority, and educational functions (Zhang, Lu 2023). Particular attention is devoted to the ethical and value-related dimensions of science communication practices, which are considered crucial for understanding the role of digital dissemination in fostering informed and critical citizenship.

Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative design (Pink et al. 2016) and a transmedia approach (Ciammella 2024), based on the semi-standardized analysis of a corpus of science-related accounts active across multiple platforms (Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube). The comparative observation of narrative lines, production practices, and engagement dynamics highlights how scientific authority is performed and negotiated in the digital public sphere.

Overall, the paper proposes to read pop science communication as a space for the cultural reworking of scientific knowledge and as a form of informal education that shapes processes of democratic learning within the hybrid media ecosystem. This perspective invites broader reflection on the technological, symbolic, and institutional conditions structuring science communication in the platform era, and on its role in the construction of democratic and epistemically aware citizenship.