Ways of representing specialized knowledge in Finnish and Swedish science Journalism.

Abstract

In science journalism the features of scientific discourse and journalistic discourse meet. From this meeting evolves yet another type of discourse, a popular scientific one. Popular scientific discourse on its part comprises different kinds of information on science that is directed to a non-professional readership. In the present paper ways of representing specialized knowledge in science journalism are discussed, and articles from two newspapers are analyzed with respect to expression level means of popularization (e.g. choice of words, the use of metaphors) and text level means of popularization (e.g. telling stories, the use of examples). The results of the analysis show that specialized knowledge is mainly presented in a neutral journalistic language, but emotive and connotative language as well as metaphors are used in order to make science interesting, entertaining, and understandable. Additionally, telling a story, personalization, and examples are used as ways of representing specialized knowledge, which shows that popularization is not only a linguistic question, but also, a question of the choice of facts in order to meet the needs and interests of the audience.