21 de December de 2023

Innovation and citizen engagement in science journalism: learnings from the ENJOI project

Is it possible to promote innovation and citizen participation in scientific journalism? This is one of the questions that the ENJOI project posed. This European project aimed to co-create standards, principles and indicators (SPIs) for quality science communication, at a European level. On December 14, ENJOI held its final event in Barcelona, to present the main results of the project.

The ultimate goal of ENJOI was to improve science communication by making it more consistently reliable, truthful, open and engaging. Through a combination of methodologies, such as the review of academic literature or participatory activities with different stakeholders, ENJOI has co-created and selected a set of standards, principles and indicators to improve journalism and science communication practices, which have been collected in a manifesto.

To share these results with the community of practice, SFC and the Catalan Association of Scientific Communication (ACCC) organized the event “Innovation and citizen engagement in science journalism” on December 14 at the Science For Change office in Barcelona.

More than 20 people attended the closing event of the project, which, for three years, has been working to improve communication and science journalism, raising digital awareness and contributing to the development of critical thinking.

It is very important to bring the results of the projects to local communities, especially in ENJOI, a project in which inclusion and citizen participation was key. I was happy to see different profiles at the event, interested in more reliable, truthful, open and attractive scientific communication

Karinna Matozinhos

Project manager of ENJOI at SFC

During the event, innovation and citizen engagement in scientific journalism were discussed. Karinna Matozinhos, project manager at Science For Change, presented how the co-creation process was completed, which was the heart of the project that allowed the creation of the standards, principles and indicators. Next, Michele Catanzaro, journalist and collaborator of the ACCC, presented the ENJOI Manifesto and explained the importance of citizen participation in good practices of science journalism.

And you know, the closing of a chapter can be the beginning of a new story. So, to close the event, a new project in the field of science communication was presented. The COALESCE project will establish the future European Competence Center for Science Communication, to offer tools and training to transfer scientific knowledge, through responsible, inclusive and quality scientific communication.