Communicating uncertainty in our mediated world: A preface

One popular refrain is that the process of scientific discovery is all about managing uncertainty. Another is that science does not reduce uncertainty so much as it produces it. Regardless of your take on the relationship, it is clear that uncertainty is a central concept in the production of scientific knowledge. That it escaped the notice of mass media science communication scholars for so long is noteworthy but also a pattern that has been dramatically reversed in recent years as researchers have begun to grapple both with the representation of uncertainty in lay science narratives, from explanatory to news, and with the impact of that content on audiences. This special issue of Communications – The European Journal of Communication Research illustrates both those dimensions via five articles that will give the reader a feel for the types of conceptual and analytical frameworks that offer insight into this complex but fascinating issue.

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