Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
THE MEMORY OF SCIENTIFIC DIVULGATION: AN INFORMATION DISCOURSE
Evelyn ORRICO
Adjunct Professor IV UNIRIO
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
This article outlines a compilation of the different spheres of scientific divulgation, based on the
premise of a wider understanding of this activity in which distinct objects of analysis can be
observed. Assuming a concept of discourse which is socially constructed, the article analyzes
various discursive manifestations which seek to divulge the production of academically
institutionalized knowledge. This diffusion is directed at social groups outside the scientific
body, or groups which do not belong to the field of knowledge that is being divulged. For this, it
is necessary to understand that symbolic representations are constructed in the culture in which
social groups are formed, as well as in the discourse which forms this culture and is also formed
by it. The results thus far point to the divulgation which is rooted in the traditional paradigmatic
cannons of scientific practice, based on social agents that have their speech validated by the
scientific body.
INTRODUCTION
This article is the result of investigations that have been developed as part of the project entitled
Memória, Discurso-Informacional e Ciência: a Divulgação Científica em Foco1 (Memory,
Information Discourse and Science: Scientific Divulgation in Focus) which, in turn, gave
continuity to the project that preceded it, called Memória e Identidade: a Construção DiscursivoMetafórica nas Novas Tecnologias da Informação2
(Memory and Identity: Discursive-
Metaphorical Construction in the New Information Technologies).
The premises that form the basis of both projects are that:
1. Linguistics establishes an appropriate theoretical interface with various other areas
of knowledge;
2. Communications occur via language, and the representation of the world occurs in
socially constructed discourse;
3. Symbolic and cultural constructions have, in language, their means of production
and expression;
4. Studies in the field of information take into account their insertion in social spaces;
128
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
5. The representation of scientific production according to the social conditions.
These premises are the basis for reflections on the processes by which information is
transmitted, bearing in mind that these processes only occur in an organized social
environment.
Therefore, understanding the intricacies of the construction of the symbolic
universe of a determined social group is fundamental for the success of the information
procedures. Thus, linking studies on symbolic process and language is a sine qua non condition
for elucidating these procedures.
Our premises support the perception that the construction of this symbolic universe is
consecrated based on socially constructed discursive practices. Considering humans as social
beings, configured by the construction of language, and considering that social practices are
intermediated by this construction, and also that Linguistics is the science that studies it, what
could be more natural than turning our interest to understanding the interface that is established
between Linguistics and the various areas of knowledge, particularly Information Science (IS)?
This interest did not start here; it began, in particular, in disciplines in the field of Social
Sciences, interested in understanding the intricacies of language in order to understand social
phenomena. It is desirable, therefore, to address reflections on the language together with
theoretical-empirical issues dealt with by IS, the field of knowledge which focuses on issues
relating to information/science/society.
Considering the above, the theme that interests us more specifically is the so-called discourse
of scientific divulgation, bearing in mind that the understanding of the world is, in some form,
transposed — and divulged — by which it is established in the field of science.
OBJECT
Based on the above premises, this work discusses the representation — and the divulgation —
of science in the various distinct means of communication.
Initially, we present the questions that prompted and guide our investigation. At the heart of our
reflections on divulgation is thinking about the statute of science, and next of the impact the
press has had on the framework of this representation. Finally, we present some results found
thus far.
129
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
QUESTIONS
There are many questions that guide our investigations, but in this article we will focus on one in
particular:
•
How do discourses of scientific divulgation, produced in different media, contribute to the
construction of representations of science?
This question led us to define the objectives of this article.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this article is to present the theoretical framework that supports the
various analyses which we perform on the object of scientific divulgation. More specifically, it
seeks to analyze, in four distinct empirical objects, the different representations of science
constructed in the process of divulgation.
JUSTIFICATION
Our understanding of the important social role of the transmission of scientific information for
the population is based on the opportunity for social transformation that information of this type
can bring in society. When we speak of transformation we refer, among other things, to the
possibility of forming citizens and training professionals to take their place in the contemporary
job market.
The need to train polyvalent professionals in this day and age has led to the understanding that
the linguistic focus in procedures of information transfer, an area of excellence of IS, is an
important factor, given that to inform is, above all, to activate meanings and this occurs through
languages, be they in the form of images, written words or physical gestures. To illustrate our
affirmation concerning the relationship between language studies and IS, we can give as an
example the summary of the electronic version of the Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology – JASIST – for the last issues of the years 2004 and 2008.
In the first, we see that of the titles of the articles contained in parts 10 and 11 of volume 55,
four relate to the field of language studies, and in the 2008 issue, of the 11 articles published,
three titles refer explicitly to language, communication and the behavior of users when using
search engines. In our view, these findings demonstrate the importance that the area of IS
attributes to reflections on language and the communities that use it.
130
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
LANGUAGE STUDIES
In a previous work, Orrico (2006) presented a brief history of language studies, and introduced
the concept of discourse as the most appropriate one for establishing this interface with IS
studies. In that article, the author referred to what is traditionally considered the start of linguistic
studies, in the early years of the 20th century, with the publication of the book Cours de
linguistique général. This work, whose authorship is attributed to Ferdinand Saussure, is, in
fact, the result of class notes compiled by his former students from a course given by him in the
years 1912-1913, which focused on identification of structures that characterized a language,
enabling the similarities between one language and another to be established and
consequently, the linguistic families to be defined.
The new concept proposed by Saussure opened a fertile field that enabled the emergence of
new streams, including some that criticized his approach, such as the generative grammar
proposed by Noam Chomsky at the beginning of the 1960s. It should be emphasized that we
are speaking of a western tradition, the purpose of which was to study language separately
from a function or purpose.
However, as Orrico (2006) pointed out, in that same period of history at the start of the 20th
century, another means of understanding language was taking place in the Soviet Union, where
important theorists — the Circle of Prague — were more interested in understanding language
and its processes as an element of a system of communication which had two poles: a sender
and a receiver.
Meanwhile, still in the Soviet Union, there were theorists who belonged to the Circle of Bakhtin
which, focusing on the interaction between language, society and history, proposed that
language is used by the presenter for its concrete enunciative needs, and that meanings derive
from its use in specific contexts. The theorists of this circle also claimed that language is
offered to the presenter in moments of enunciation that always involve “a precise ideological
context ".
[...] In real life, we do not utter words, but rather hear lies, truth,
stupidity, wisdom, etc. Hence, a word is always filled with a living
ideological content and meaning (Bakhtin, 2002, p. 96)
For Bakhtin, the ideological component represents a differentiating factor between 1) linguistic
studies which were concerned with the internal functioning of language and 2) those that
focused on man in communicative action, and discourse as an event. The former are directed
towards the common base of the speakers, as a virtual (and socially shared) system, which is
materially concretized in different discursive processes.
131
The latter represent the action
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
performed by man through the use of a linguistic base, with the purpose of expression and
production of meanings.
In the mid-1900’s, in France, Michel Pêcheux, a thinker interested in understanding language
and its social repercussions, focused on the concept of discourse, establishing a certain
difference with language. According to Pêcheux, while the latter consists of the set of
phonological, morphological and syntactic structures with relative autonomy, the internal laws of
which govern its functioning and are the object of linguistic studies, the former consists of
processes which, functioning on this language base, are sources and consequences of the
ideological relations rather than the “expression of a pure thought” (1997, p.99). The notion of
discourse that we adopt here, therefore, is that it constructs the social universe in which it is
inserted — and is at the same time constructed by it.
Thus, we are interested in understanding, in the interface between IS and Linguistics, the
theoretical aspects that traditionally establish this interface, but considering discourse as the
unit of construction of meaning, in which the information units which more directly interest us —
those of scientific divulgation — are constructed.
We emphasize that we consider the concept of divulgation based on the premises of Sánchez
Mora (2003), for whom divulgation is "a recreation of scientific knowledge, to make it accessible
to the public"i (p. 13). Also, we consider scientific divulgation as an activity of dissemination,
which is directed to an audience outside the space in which it is produced. Thus, the scientific
knowledge produced, and in circulation within a more restricted community [the scientific], is
directed to other spaces of circulation, with other discursive practices.
In this case, the
dissemination which occurs outside the formal spaces in which it produced, without any intent to
promote the development of the scientific community that generated it, is considered divulgation
— for example, the activity of dissemination in a particular branch of science.
Also, we
understand that the discussion surrounding scientific divulgation should involve, besides the
translation or reformulation of the scientific language, not only the specific practice of scientific
activity, but also the practices of the social group to whom this divulgation is targeted.
SCIENTIFIC DIVULGATION
In a previous work, Orrico and Oliveira (2007) discussed the studies on the scientific community
by Information Science in Brazil. In that article, they referred to Pinheiro (2007) who affirms that
studies on scientific communication in Brazil began at the end of the 1980s, more specifically in
1987, which was the year in which the first thesis was presented on this theme, within this
discipline.
132
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
According to Sánchez Mora (2003), from the start of the 17th century through to the 19th
century, the ordinary public was informed of scientific discoveries written in the national
languages of the scientists. In the 19th century, when it reached maturity, science evolved with
the construction of an increasingly specialized language.
Until then, men of science had
gathered to speak about various subjects, including science, but without the barrier of
specialized discourse.
For some authors, the divulgation of science began after the period in which Galileo, at the end
of the 16th century and start of the 17th, shortened the distance between the two methods of
questioning nature, i.e. empiricism and logic. Then science came to require a new symbolic
language to describe the Universe, bearing in mind the impersonal way with which the world
came to be seen. Up until that time, the ordinary language had managed to deal with reporting
experiential processes, but this ceased after the tendency to description was abandoned, and
the sciences, especially physics, adopted mathematical language as their form of expression. It
should be noted that, in any case, we are speaking of Latin writing, targeted at a very small
literate community. This is not what happens today with texts written in language of culture,
albeit in a specialized language.
As language began to specialize even more, from the first half of the 19th century on, the British
Association for the Advancement of Science organized, in 1860, a series of conferences
dedicated to the working classes in various parts of Britain, aimed at informing them about
scientific discoveries with the purpose of eliminating obstacles to the progress of science, in the
belief that one of the obstacles to progress was the ignorance of the common man in relation to
scientific truths. According to Calder (1975), the virtually illiterate population was avid for the
knowledge divulged, and through him we learn that, in Bradford, 3,500 workers came to listen to
Thompson talk about electricity.
Scientists have caused the expansion of the language by appropriating terms from other areas,
and above all coining new terms that express the concepts needed to explain the new
phenomena observed, which effectively made their explanations incomprehensible to nonspecialists. This situation, also according to Calder (1975), generated another: the idea that the
scientists who cannot explain what they doing in a language that is comprehensible outside
their specialty do not really know what they are doing.
This specialization of language delineates, furthermore, the validation criteria by which scientific
production is governed and evaluated, which ends up further increasing the distance between
the specific language of science and the population that is unable to master it. This makes the
close ties between language and the transmission of information even more interesting,
considering the new communicational possibilities afforded by technologies today. Current
133
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
initiatives, such as the open archives, aimed at publicizing scientific production, make it possible
for the layman to once again gain direct access to works of this nature.
Thus, our concerns with the transmission of scientific production lie in the affirmation of
Sánchez Mora (2003). For this author, scientific divulgation seeks to create a point of contact
between the “world of science” and the “other worlds”, exercising a fundamental
communicational function as the common person becomes able to incorporate scientific
knowledge into his/her culture. This means taking into consideration that scientific discoveries
have social and cultural impacts, involving ethical issues related to the role of research
institutions, promotional bodies, and the communication media, and even the responsibility of
the scientists to divulge their work. Finally, this process takes place ultimately in the area of
popular education.
Based on these premises, in our investigations we consider the transmission of what is
produced by the science in any media or support to be scientific divulgation and therefore an
object of analysis. We adopt the understanding that speaking about science to a lay public, or
rather, not only transposing the specialized language to the ordinary language but in a way
shifting one cultural universe to another, is to carry out scientific divulgation. To understand how
this divulgation configures and constitutes the cultural-symbolic universe of the social group for
whom this divulgation is targeted, it is first necessary to reflect on the concepts of
representation and culture.
REPRESENTATION
Initially, we specify the epistemological context of our reflection on the concept of
representation, presenting a diachronic overview of the evolution of the concept, and then
arriving at a concept of representation based on the approach of cultural studies.
Based on Williams (2007), Orrico (2008) addressed the history of the concept of representation
based on different places of use, seeking to demonstrate how words were being historically
constructed in order to understand the system of meanings of modern day society.
Although in that study Williams focused on the political use of the construction of meaning of the
term representation, this aspect is nevertheless of interest to us here, bearing in mind that the
theory of cultural studies, which forms the basis of our ideas, also includes the political slant.
Williams (2007) states that the group of words which have the concept of ‘representation’ as
their central axis has been for a long time — and continues to be — extremely complex. The
author goes on to say that the term emerged in the English language in the 14th century, a
period in which the verb ‘to present’ already existed with the idea of ‘to make present”. In this
period, the meaning extended to include the notion of symbolizing, as it also came to mean
134
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
‘make present’ not only in the physical sense of presenting to oneself or to another, but also to
make present in the mind, or in the form of painting or drama.
From the 17th century, the meaning extended still further, and the idea of representing went
beyond the meaning of being in the place of another which was absent, taking on the meaning
of ‘acting on behalf of another’. In the 18th century, a new extension of the meaning ended up
establishing a relationship of meaning in which the verb ‘to represent’ took on the notion of
something typical of a determined situation. This line of semantic development led to the
meaning of representation as the ‘visual embodiment of something’, through to the
establishment of the meaning of representation as the ‘exact reproduction’ of something.
This historical narrative, based on the text by Williams (2007), illustrates how the construction of
meaning of the concept of representing has occurred over history, promoting its understanding
in relation to culture, which in turn is appropriate for understanding the process that takes place
in scientific divulgation. Here we are not speaking of exact representation, but the symbolization
that is inserted in the cultural environment.
We base our analysis on the understanding of representation in the light of cultural studies,
more specifically those of Stuart Hall (2003), for whom there is a clear relationship between
representation and culture imprinted on the language. The author states that, understanding
culture as a set of shared knowledge, language is a privileged media in which we produce and
exchange meanings, while at the same time it is through it that we have access to the
meanings.
The author continues his argument stating that language enables the sharing and exchange of
meanings because it operates as a representational system. He states that in language we use
signs and symbols — whether spoken, written, or electronically produced, images or musical
notes — to establish or represent our concepts, ideas or feelings to other people. Also
according to this author, language is one of the means by which the thoughts, ideas and
feelings are represented in the culture, and he therefore believes that representation via
language is central to the processes by which meaning is produced. It is this intrinsic
relationship that is established between representation, language and culture that is important
to us in this article.
To better understand what this means, we need to see how the concept culture is understood in
the studies carried out by Hall.
CULTURE
We adopt the premise defended by Hall (2003), for whom culture depends on the way in which
the members of a society or group interpret the meaning of what happens in the world, and
135
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
“signify” this world in a similar way. This author states that two people belong to the same
culture when they interpret the world in practically the same way, and can express their
thoughts and feelings about the world in such a way that they will understand each other.
According to this understanding, cultural meanings are not to be located exclusively and
internally in each of the members of a group or society, but in the set comprised of its members
as a whole, since these meanings organize and regulate social practices, influencing the
conducts of its members, and consequently giving rise to practical effects.
We share the view that it is important to understand cultural practices because it is through the
interpretation that we attribute to things that they come to have “meaning”. It is our way of
thinking, speaking, feeling and using the things of the world that gives them meaning. Hall
(2003) exemplifies his theoretical view by resorting to an almost poetic image. He states that
our way of using bricks and mortar enables us to build a house; but what we feel, think and say
about this house is what makes it a home. Thus, he emphasizes that the way we represent
things is what, to a certain extent, gives them meaning.
For Hall, this representation involves not only the words we use to speak about the things of the
world, the stories we tell and the images we produce of them, but also the emotions that we
associate with them, the way in which we conceptualize and classify them, and the values we
attribute to them; all these are practices in which culture is steeped.
It also needs to be said that these practices are not genetically determined but need to be
learned, and their meaning interpreted by the members of a social group. This is what, after all,
distinguishes the human element in the social organization, which, in turn, is strongly linked to
the symbolic dominion at the heart of the social life.
From what we have expounded, i.e. from the intrinsic relationship which Hall (2003) establishes
between representation, language and culture, we suggest reflecting about the representation
of science in the means of divulgation of knowledge, more specifically in terms of scientific
divulgation, from the perspective of culture studies.
This understanding implies the coexistence, in the different means of media communication, of
various elements which constitute the communication process and which, although they may
appear to be arranged chaotically, are ordered in a way that enables the conception of a
coherent discursive construction. This coherence is due to the presence of elements which
comprise discursive practices, namely: whose is(are) the voice(s) of the topic being conveyed;
how is(are) this voice(these voices) arranged in the means of communication; what is the
relationship established between the subjects in that space-time arrangement.
To give a clearer understanding of the results we have achieved thus far, we will begin by
focusing a little on the history of divulgation.
136
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
HISTORY OF DIVULGATION
From the 17th century, there was a growing concern to find ways of organizing and making
available information on the scientific advances that were taking place, in terms of its
communication as a necessary element for the growth of knowledge.
In this sense, the
formation of scientific societies created the necessary environment for the organization of the
knowledge produced and its circulation among colleagues, and subsequently among other
interested parties, the main product of this phenomenon being the scientific journal (Oliveira,
2007).
Today, the availability of technological means of communication has given a new dimension to
the media through which science is communicated, although the forms continue to be basically
oral and written. This possibility of new media, as well as the nature of the scientific community,
considering the statement by Meadows, affects not only the way the information is presented,
but also the volume of information in circulation (1999). The growth in the volume of information
circulating alters the symbolic and cultural universe of the community, enabling the
representations defined by the individuals in this group to be established.
Therefore, we can see that scientific development has transformed mentalities, visions of the
world, and educational practices, and as a result science has gained a hegemonic position as
the system which explains phenomena. This development involved a high level of
specialization, impacting the scientific communities, which transformed themselves into groups
of erudite scholars; the journals, which also began to specialize; and the language the scientists
used to communicate their discoveries. In a short time, scientific divulgation had two objectives:
adaptation for the layman and information for the scientists in certain areas who were interested
in objects developed in other areas (Sánchez Mora, 2003).
According to Moreira and Massarani (2002), over time, scientific divulgation responded to
various interests and motivations, depending on the philosophical premises of science, the
scientific contents involved, the underlying culture, political and economic interests, and the
means available in different places and at different times.
From the second half of the 20th century, discussions involving scientific communication
highlighted the relationship between science and society, considering that the interest in
scientific production went beyond the walls of the scientific community to gradually become an
attribute of contributors, decision-makers and common citizens, who are at the receiving end of
the changes that science produces in society. In this sense, scientific education plays an
important role in raising awareness, and divulgation becomes the focus of discussion, bearing
in mind the conditions for the circulation of discursive constructs that bring to light scientific
137
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
discoveries and advances, and the information which, at different levels, can guide decisionmaking processes.
At the heart of any discussion of decisions to be made in the field of the social life lies the fact
that the relationship between the scientific field and society has undergone significant
transformations since the 20th century. Among these transformations, we highlight the role of
the State and the scientific institutions, which have gradually come to “direct” not only research
in different areas, due to the volume of funds invested in certain projects and the decisions as to
which research is priority, but above all what is to be published to the non-academically initiated
society.
Besides this relationship, the speed and the great capacity that the means of communication
have to bring us, if we wish, into contact with information on often unknown subjects, has led to
a change in the concept citizens have of the scientific production and of science itself.
To address the question of the divulgation is to discuss the discursive forms as channels
through which this communication takes place, considering that they redimension the language
in this essential process of reformulation between distinct but closely related spheres: science
and public.
Discussion of this relationship presupposes, based on Giddens (2002), that all human
experience is mediated by the socialization, and particularly by the acquisition of language. The
author affirms, furthermore, that language and memory are intrinsically linked, both at the level
of individual recollection and at the level of institutionalization of collective experience.
In a previous article, Orrico (2008), speculating on the role of Information Science in the
representation of science to the lay population, established a relation between this concept by
Giddens of that by Stuart Hall (2003) and his circuit involving representation-culture-language,
since language produces meaning because it operates within a system of representation. The
importance of IS in this circuit lies in the reflections it engenders for the divulgation of science.
INITIAL RESULTS
As stated earlier, this article is the fruit of a wider research project which is currently underway,
and which deals with a long list of research questions. Here we restrict ourselves to just one
aspect of these guiding questions, focusing on the discourses of scientific production produced
by different communication media, and the representations of science produced by these
discourses.
We have achieved some results, which are grouped into three aspects of analysis. The first
aspect of the study observes the relationship established between the activities of divulgation
138
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
and the areas of knowledge they seek to divulge. The second aspect attempts to recover, in
the origins of the press in Brazil, the first texts that dealt with scientific themes addressed to the
lay population. And the third aspect, focusing on textbooks, seeks to understand divulgation
within the educational process. These aspects attempt to understand, in short, which social
players are involved in the process of scientific divulgation, and how the discourses of scientific
divulgation contribute to the construction of representations of science, even though they are
conveyed by different media.
Divulgation and area of knowledge
In the first aspect, two analytical procedures will be described here. In the first, Gadelha (2006)
sought to establish a parallel between what was effectively divulged in journals of scientific
divulgation, and what the production in the area of knowledge of Chemistry. Articles were
analyzed in two journals published by the Brazilian Chemistry Society, and two by a commercial
publisher. The choice of journals was guided by the supposition that there might be significant
differences between journals published under the auspices of a scientifically respected
academy, and those which are purely commercial.
In the second work under this aspect, Simão (2007), in her final student research paper,
presented the result of an analysis of a television series which mixes political investigation with
the theoretical support of Anthropology. This series is called Bones, and its consultant is the
renowned forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, who is also the series producer. She is one of
fifty forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. The
inclusion of this consultant in environments of recognized academic merit reinforces our
premise that there is information of a scientific nature being divulged to the greater masses of
television spectators through fictional narratives, and this contributes to the spread of scientific
affirmations contained in the series.
In terms of the language used by journalistic material, the analysis of Gadelha (2006) indicates
that although simplified, it requires of the reader some knowledge related to the culture of the
field of Chemistry, which makes interaction with those who do not form part of that knowledge
culture difficult. Simão (2007) did not restrict herself to examining language itself, but
demonstrated the concern that the characters occasionally showed, through their texts, with the
possibility that they might not be understood due to the technical terms they were obliged to
use. We note that in the television series it was the fictional verisimilitude that manifested this
concern.
Gadelha (2006) perceived that the methods of validation used in academic circles are also used
in the divulgation texts. It is common to see references to research institutions and researchers,
as a form of supporting what is being divulged. Simão (2007), in turn, perceived that in the
resolution of fictional cases, the proofs are based on demonstrable evidence using deductive
139
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
reasoning which reproduces, to a certain extent, the way in which research related to the
natural sciences is carried out.
Furthermore, Simão (2007) perceived that in the image of the scientists constructed by the
series, they are portrayed as being extremely dedicated to their work, filling their time with extra
work, spending days without sleeping or taking holidays in order to work more. The scientists
prove to be strange creatures, sometimes being compared with extraterrestrial beings, but have
authority in what they do, and are always consulted to solve problems.
This fictional
representation reinforces the image of the power that sciences holds in relation to the
understanding of natural and social phenomena.
Divulgation and its origins in the Brazilian press
In the second aspect, we found articles published in the early 19th century in the newspaper “A
Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro”, aimed at discussing, from a discursive-cultural perspective, the start
of the discursive construction of the divulgation of science in order to gain a better
understanding of it, and thereby better divulge it. The premise that forms the basis of this study
of the media in general, and the printed press in particular, is that the experience conveyed by
the media introduces distant events to the daily awareness, and can infiltrate the daily activity of
the readers/listeners/television spectators of the material divulged. This introduction will
constitute space of memory which, in turn, will help form ties of cultural representation,
reinforced in the information processes (Giddens, 2002).
The fundamental question for discussion, in our view, is that a process of scientific divulgation
creates spaces and places of representation that will construct a symbolic universe of
discursive practices that are both constituting of and constituted by the reality around us.
Relying heavily on the work by Silva (2007) on the Gazeta newspaper, we can state, as she
does, that at the start of the 19th century, natural history predominated over all the other areas
of science.
We can say, then, based on Hall (2003), that the divulgation of this area of
knowledge organized the symbolic-cultural universe of the erudite elite of the 19th century,
bearing in mind the space of memory that is constructed by representation, via language.
Orrico (2008) shows that one of the earliest manifestations of what we call divulgation occurred
in the form of the announcement of a book of science published in Europe. At the start of the
19th century, Brazilian science was taking its first steps and needed to be backed by
international experience, and the same is seen today, where much of what is divulged by the
scientific journals endorses its information with references to authors and international research
institutions, as pointed out by Gadelha (2006).
Divulgation and the education process
140
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
In the third aspect, Orrico, Gouveia and Oliveira (2008) investigate the pedagogical use of the
image in terms of its relationship with the written text for the presentation of knowledge in the
area of Physics. Their object of investigation was the representation of the image in Physics
textbooks, based on the premise that the book is one of the instruments by which the curricula
are materialized, and it is historically constructed and socially contextualized.
Taking a qualitative approach, the authors established a methodological system, beginning with
an exploratory reading of 25 Physics textbooks used in secondary education which were
circulating in the 1920s and 1930s of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century.
They focused their analysis on two books from the 1910s / 1930s, establishing a counterpoint
with an example from the year 2007.
Their analysis shows that current techniques enable images and texts to be contained in the
same page space in different ways: overlapping; in fragmentary form; as a “background” to the
text; etc. However, it was not always so, and the narratives have not always been produced
based on written text with images. According to Chartier (1999), from the advent of the press
until the 19th century, in the western world, the images were placed outside the text, on
separate pages, as the technique used to print the text was different from that used to print
images. Thus, we can say that technologies have had a profound influence on the way in
which discursive practices are constructed, and therefore, on symbolic and cultural practices.
This analysis led to the identification that reading textbooks provides an interaction with
different forms of aesthetic expression and cultural worlds, through a crossing between
cultures, and between the media and the scholarly and scientific cultures.
In reality, the
culture of the other becomes a didactic resource — as its cultural world is called to participate
in the interactions — when it can be used as an argument to develop a legitimate explanatory
model.
In this crossing of cultures, we conclude that the scientific culture continues to be predominant
in this mode of scientific divulgation as a specific lexicon, valorization of certain research
protocols, and description of models used to explain phenomena, which correspond to
discursive practices that are supported in the educational context.
The textbook constitutes a cultural object, whose texts are semiotic hybrids (LEMKE, 1998),
and are cut through by various discourses: that of science, the school, daily life, and the
medias, among others. The textbook as a cultural object is the expression of the utterances of
its authors, socially and historically situated, and is appropriated by teachers and students in the
practices of Physics classes. Thus, it becomes the document of a period of history in the
school discipline, constituting a cultural object of its time.
141
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
CONCLUSION
Taking up once again the question that first prompted the writing of this article, we can draw a
conclusion based on a varied sample of analytical objects as to how the discourses of scientific
divulgation produced in the different media contribute to the construction of representations of
science.
The first aspect showed that the divulgation of wide fields of knowledge uses validation criteria
and research procedures that are similar to those used in the production targeted at the
academic world itself. The paradigms reinforce the concept that scientists are special beings,
different from ordinary mortals, and that they hold the power of knowledge.
In terms of the content of what is divulged, we can see that even today there is a prevalence of
the natural sciences over any other field of knowledge, which ends up forming part of a cultural
environment that will favor a certain concept of science.
It is in the intrinsic relationship
between representation, language and culture that the image of the scientist is constructed in
the means of divulgation of knowledge, specifically in terms of scientific divulgation.
According to the second aspect of our studies, we can see that the divulgation of wide fields of
knowledge could focus more specifically on the Brazilian production, validating the information
with the research produced here. Journalists should not be carried away by the euphoria of
scientific discoveries, but should contextualize the subjects publicized, making the population
aware of the problems facing the development of research in this country as well as its
achievements, which would strengthen the cultural identity of the population.
Regarding the third aspect, in terms of technological resources, we can see that the textbooks
used today are similar in form to contemporary magazines, but contents and images from the
field of Physics, and the school discipline of Physics, are present. A crossing of cultures is
therefore perceived: that of the media with the school and the scientific cultures.
This
interlinking is used as a didactic resource, in that the culture of the other is called to form part of
the interactions, serving as an argument for the development of a legitimate explanatory model.
From the analyses carried out, we see that the discursive practices validated by science are
perpetuated in the published texts, namely: specific vocabulary, similar validation methods, and
a coming together of contemporary media forms.
To gain a better understanding of this process, we believe that Information Science, which is
interdisciplinary in nature, is a fundamental field of knowledge for performing a fundamental
role, not only in the exercise of divulgation itself and academic reflection about it but also in
promoting understanding of the creation of new networks of knowledge that can be divulged.
142
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
REFERENCES
BAKHTIN, M. Marxismo e filosofia da linguagem. São Paulo: HUCITEC, 10th ed. 2002
CALDER, Ritchie. A ciência para o profano. In: CORREIO DA UNESCO. Ciência e mitos.
Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getúlio Vargas, 1975.
CHARTIER, R. A aventura do livro: do leitor ao navegador. São Paulo: Fundação Editora da
Unesp, 1999.
GADELHA, Margareth Monteiro. A identidade da Química no Brasil no contexto dos
discursos de divulgação: um estudo de caso em quatro periódicos. Dissertation (Master’s
Degree in Social Memory) - Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO).
Supervisor: Evelyn Goyannes Dill Orrico. Co-supervisor: Lucia Maria Alves Ferreira. 2006.
GIDDENS, Anthony. Modernidade e identidade. Translation into Portuguese: Olínio Dentzien.
Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Ed., 2002.
HALL, Stuart. Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices. London: The
Open University,1997. Reprinted 2003.
LEMKE, J. Multiplying meaning: visual and verbal semiotics in scientific texts. In: Martin, J. R.,
Veel, R. (eds.). Reading Science. London: Routledge. 1998.
MEADOWS, Arthur Jack. A comunicação científica. Translation into Portuguese: Antonio
Agenor Briquet de Lemos. Brasília, DF: Briquet de Lemos Livros, 1999.
MOREIRA, Ildeu de Castro e MASSARANI, Luisa. Aspectos históricos da divulgação científica
no Brasil. IN: MASSARANI, Luisa; MOREIRA, Ildeu de Castro e BRITO, Fátima (org). Ciência
e Público: caminhos da divulgação científica no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Casa da Ciência –
Centro Cultural de Ciência e Tecnologia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro: Fórum de
Ciência e Cultura, 2002.
OLIVEIRA, Carmen Irene C. de. O remake: produzir sentidos diferentes a partir do mesmo ou
como a informação articula a relação cinema/memória/ciência. 2007. Thesis qualification (PhD
in Information Science) - IBICT/UFF, 2007.
ORRICO, Evelyn Goyannes Dill. As metáforas na interdisciplinaridade: uma proposta
possível? In: Anais do VII ENANCIB - Encontro Nacional de Pesquisa em Ciência da
Informação,
Marília,
SP.
Nov.
2006.
Available
at:
http://www.portalppgci.marilia.unesp.br/enancib/viewabstract.php?id=256. Accessed in Dec.
/2008.
ORRICO, Evelyn Goyannes Dill e OLIVEIRA, Carmen Irene de. Análise do discurso na
divulgação científica: uma reflexão na Ciência da Informação. In: Anais do VIII ENANCIB –
Encontro Nacional de Pesquisa em Ciência da Informação. Salvador, BA. out 2007. Available
at: http://www.enancib.ppgci.ufba.br. Accessed in Dec./2008.
ORRICO, Evelyn Goyannes Dill. A representação da divulgação científica no início do
século XIX: reflexos do paradigma científico. In: Anais do IX ENANCIB - Encontro Nacional de
Pesquisa em Ciência da Informação. São Paulo, SP. Set-out /2008.
Available at:
http://www.enancib2008.com.br/. Accessed in Dec./ 2008.
ORRICO, E. G. D. ; GOUVEA, G. ; OLIVEIRA, Carmen Irene Correia de . O discurso
imagético nos livros didáticos de física para o ensino médio. In: IV Colóquio Lusobrasileiro sobre Questões Curriculares, 2008, Santa Catarina - Florianópolis. Anais do IV
Colóquio Luso-brasileiro sobre Questões Curriculares. Florianópolis, 2008.
PÊCHEUX, M. Semântica e discurso: uma crítica à afirmação do óbvio. Campinas, São
Paulo: Editora da Unicamp, 1997.
PINHEIRO, L. V. Ribeiro. Palestra proferida na Semana de Ciência e Tecnologia. IBICT. 2
October 2007.
143
Morpheus - Revista Eletrônica em Ciências Humanas - Ano 09, número 14, 2012
ISSN 1676-2924
SÁNCHEZ MORA, Ana Maria. A divulgação da ciência como literatura. Translation into
Portuguese: Silvia Pérez Amato. Rio de Janeiro: Casa da Ciência – Centro Cultural de Ciência
e Tecnologia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro: Editora da UFRJ, 2003.
SILVA, Maria Beatriz Nizza da. A Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro (1808-1822): cultura e sociedade.
Rio de Janeiro,RJ: EdUERJ, 2007.
SIMÃO, Bárbara. O discurso da divulgação científica nas séries televisivas. Iniciação
Científica. (Graduando em Biblioteconomia) - Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de
Janeiro, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico. Supervisor: Evelyn
Goyannes Dill Orrico. 2007.
WILLIAMS, Raymond. Palavras-chave: um vocabulário de cultura e sociedade. Translation
into Portuguese: Sandra Guardini Vascolcelos. São Paulo:SP, Boitempo, 2007.
NOTES
1
Project subsidized by the CNPq with a research productivity grant, in the period 2007-2010.
2
Project subsidized by the CNPq with a research productivity grant, in the period 2004-2007
i
Free English translation from the text in Portuguese.
144