Public relations as a tool of science communication with society

• Main Author: Andrzej H. Jasinski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas 2010-01-01
• Series: Revista CENIC. Ciencias Biológicas
• Online Access: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=181220509074
• ISSN: 0253-5688; 2221-2450

In the field of science, Central and East European countries (CEECs) have inherited various relics from the past, among them: -bad communication between science and society, -low level of public understanding of science (PUS), -weak co-operation between the science sphere and the production sphere, -small scale of science commercialisation, -practically non-existent infrastructure of scientific and technological knowledge flows in society. At present, the market reforms in CEECs are far advanced. So now, the main direction in their developments is to build the knowledge-based economy/society. Moreover, the science sector has been divided into three separate sub-sectors: (1) Higher Education, (2) Academies of Sciences and (3) Industrial R&D. Higher education institutions together with academy of sciences¿ research institutes constitute so-called academic science. In reforming our countries towards modern market economies, academic science faces numerous challenges. Among them, there is a challenge: How to communicate better with society? There are various tools of such communication. One of them is public relations (PR). The main aim of this paper is to prove a big potential role of public relations as a communication tool between academic science and society, with a special reference to CEECs. Poland will here be a case-study. The following issues will be analyzed in the paper: 1. The role of science communication: A brief survey of literature 2. Public relations as an element of science communication 3. Polish experiences: A short evaluation 4. A desired role of public relations 5. Conclusion.