The Twitter Practices of South African Science Communication Initiatives

The next speaker in this IAMCR 2023 session is Sisanda Nkoala, whose interest is in science journalism on social media in South Africa. Science journalism is a specialised form of journalists covering science, medicine, and technology, and has gained particular prominence especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; the pandemic has also exposed the value-laden aspects of science journalism, however, pointing to the centrality of politics in the scientific enterprise in the post-war era and the predominant Global North perspectives embraced by science journalism. This does not necessarily serve countries like South Africa well.

The present study examined the Twitter feeds of three South African science journalism entities, assessing the extent to which they engaged with audiences, or even allowed them to set news agendas. It gathered data from all three entities from the time they started to August 2022. The three entities were The Conversation Africa, SciBraai (aiming to provide ‘round the fire’ science stories from Southern Africa, predominantly for kids), and Bhekisisa (a centre for health journalism). SciBraai predominantly uses audio and video podcasts, while the others are more focussed on text articles and graphics.

Bhekisisa necessarily focussed especially on health topics; SciBraai covered a broader range of science and technology stories; while The Conversation Africa provides a greater mix between the natural and social sciences and also engages with university and political matters. This suggests a diverse understanding of science journalism that is broader than conventional definitions of the concept; especially in the latter outlets there isn’t a conventional focus on the ‘hard’, natural sciences only.

Applying the concept of media richness theory, which considers how the features and affordances of a given medium facilitate more or less rich forms of communication, The Conversation Africa must be considered the least media-rich account of the three, as it merely shares the articles published on its site and makes no attempts to further engagement (beyond Twitter itself, however, there is much further engagement both on its own site and as its articles are republished elsewhere); SciBraai is the most media-rich (not least also because of its podcasts). Bhekisisa also enriched its Twitter posts with accessible infographics, so it sits between the two.

Additionally, the language used in the outlets’ posts should also be considered in assessing their richness. Finding the right language balance between simple explanations and the communication of complex concepts is difficult, especially perhaps in South Africa where English is not most people’s first language; SciBraai, notably, also used the Zulu language in its podcasts. This also helps represent the cultures and perspectives of non-English-speaking communities, of course.