CONCLUSIONS TVMORFOSIS/CONTD

AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION OF SCIENCE:

Contents, slots and audiences

1st, 2nd and 3rd of June 2017 – Taller d’Audiovisuals of the University of Valencia

1. The digital environment, and particularly the Internet, is a challenge and an opportunity in the communication of science for content producers, broadcasters and audiences.
2. In an area that online video represents over 70% of all data traffic on the network, the scientific audiovisual content becomes a key to communicate science in an attractive way for the general public, since it gets the attention in an attractive way to.
3. Scientific knowledge must be flexible to digital changes, to new languages ​​and to "transmedia" environments. From the same old genres, new formats are designed with other forms and narrative styles, in which creativity seems to have no limits. From the simplest one-minute-long narrations, able to become viral through social media, to the most complex narratives, who need to deepen the data and explanations and require a more leisurely and reflexive consumption. Online communication has a very wide range.
4. The main goal is providing a clear, dynamic and attractive message for the contemporary viewer. In this sense, the introduction of entertainment or humor and, in general, hybrid formats such as "infotainment" is a very effective strategy to communicate science and reach more heterogeneous audiences, especially young people.
5. In any case, science is not meant to be boring. In fact, the attractive style does not have to be at odds with rigor or audiovisual quality. We have to pay special attention to issues that have been very polarized in the public and media debate, such as climate change or vaccines. We must appeal to the social responsibility of scientists and disseminators.
6. The development of audiovisual projects and the consulting sessions, which have been a novelty in this edition of the TVMorfosis/CONTD, are indispensable to work for the communication of science focusing on the search of a new audience without losing the rigor.
7. The same thing happens to co-productions, which have been especially fruitful during these TVMorfosis/CONTD sessions, as shown by the success of the workshops held for this purpose. Thus, beyond the project Vidas y Bebidas, which served as presentation of this edition, it have been prepared three more co-productions in which a large number of universities will take part, as well as countries committed to the realization of TVMorfosis meetings.
8. On the other hand, the radical impact that this scenario is provoking on the relations between all the actors involved in the communication of science leads to a more open and participative environment, in which innovation plays a fundamental role.
9. Therefore, the sources and the dissemination channels are no longer exclusively institutions, because audiences and citizens have become producing agents and they are increasingly active. And that is so in scientific communication. This does not mean that universities and research centers have ceased to be highly relevant agents in transferring scientific and general knowledge to the whole society. If they want to remain a reference, they will have to adapt necessarily to the new context.
10. This requires an ever closer collaboration between scientists and communicators in many areas. The Science Communication Units, which have emerged in many universities and research centers, can become excellent platforms from where to encourage this labor and put in contact one another.