Situations in which no scientific consensus has been reached due to either insufficient, inconclusive or contradicting findings place strain on governments and public organizations which are forced to take action under circumstances of uncertainty. In this chapter, we focus on the case of COVID-19, its effects on children and the public debate around the reopening of schools. The aim is to better understand the relationship between policy interventions in the face of an uncertain and rapidly changing knowledge landscape and the subsequent use of scientific information in public debates related to the policy interventions. Our approach is to combine scientific information from journal articles and preprints with their appearance in the popular media, including social media. First, we provide a picture of the different scientific areas and approaches, by which the effects of COVID-19 on children are being studied. Second, we identify news media and social media attention around the COVID-19 scientific output related to children and schools. We focus on policies and media responses in three countries: Spain, South Africa and the Netherlands. These countries have followed very different policy actions with regard to the reopening of schools and represent very different policy approaches to the same problem. We analyse the activity in (social) media around the debate between COVID-19, children and school closures by focusing on the use of references to scientific information in the debate. Finally, we analyse the dominant topics that emerge in the news outlets and the online debates. We draw attention to illustrative cases of miscommunication related to scientific output and conclude the chapter by discussing how information from scientific publication, the media and policy actions shape the public discussion in the context of a global health pandemic.
翻译:由于没有足够、没有结论或相反的调查结果而未能达成科学共识的情况,给政府和公共组织造成了压力,它们被迫在不确定的情况下采取行动。本章着重论述COVID-19、其对儿童的影响以及围绕重新开放学校的公众辩论。目的是更好地了解在面对不确定和迅速变化的知识领域以及随后在与政策干预有关的公共辩论中利用科学信息的政策干预之间的关系。我们的做法是将期刊文章和预印品的科学信息与它们在包括社会媒体在内的大众媒体中出现的情况结合起来。首先,我们介绍正在研究COVID-19对儿童的影响的不同科学领域和方法。第二,我们查明围绕COVID-19科学产出与儿童和学校有关的新闻媒体和社会媒体的关注。我们侧重于西班牙、南非和荷兰这三个国家的政策和媒体的反应。这些国家对重新开放学校采取了非常不同的政策行动,对同一问题采取了非常不同的政策方针。我们分析了在(社会)媒体中围绕科学领域和做法的讨论,正在研究COVI-19对儿童的影响。我们查明围绕COVI-19科学政策对儿童的影响。我们围绕COVI-19的科学辩论的章节、儿童和社会媒体的辩论,最后通过学校的主流专题来分析我们辩论有关科学辩论,最后通过在线辩论来分析与主流辩论,我们研究与媒体辩论有关的辩论,我们研究有关新闻的争论如何利用与主流议题。