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The science of telling
stories: Evaluating science communication via narratives (RIRC
method)
Aquiles Negrete1* and Cecilia
Lartigue2
1Centro
de Estudios Interdisciplinarios en Ciencias y Humanidades,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), México D. F.
2Instituto
de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM), México D. F.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
aqny@yahoo.co.uk.
Accepted
23 February, 2010. |
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It is quite reasonable to claim that narratives can include,
explain and recreate science and that this means of science
communication is generally popular. This idea seems to be
supported by the fact that many contemporary authors who
include science as a theme in their work receive a good
reception among the public (at least in Britain). Novels
like Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh, Longitude by Dava
Sobel and Neuromancer by William Gibson stayed on the best
seller lists for weeks. Plays like Copenhagen by Michael
Frayn, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, Oxigen by Carl Djerassi and
Ronald Hoffmann, Diary of a steak by Deborah Levy as
well as Blue heart by Caryl Churchill enjoyed complete
sell-outs in London and other cities in Britain. The
explanation for this popularity seems to be that narratives
are amusing, attractive, and interesting. Therefore, we can
maintain that they are popular. But are they also a
long-lasting way of transmitting knowledge? But do people
remember scientific information conveyed by this means
better than they remember the traditional formats like
paradigmatic textbooks? These are questions that need to be
addressed. The RIRC method compares narrative and
paradigmatic ways of communicating scientific information,
exploring their effectiveness by comparing memory (learning)
for narrative and paradigmatic information. This work
provides an interdisciplinary approach and a novel
methodology to measure the success of communication using
narratives as compared to other text formats.
Key
words:
Science communication, science and narratives, science
communication evaluation, RIRC method. |
