Volume 7 • Issue 01 • 2024 • Medioambiente y divulgación de la ciencia / Meio ambiente e divulgação da ciência (Medioambiente/Meio ambiente)

The environmental dimension goes through different aspects linked to health, biodiversity, well-being and sustainability of human and non-human life. Although these are manifested in several regions of the world, Latin America has been particularly affected. In this context, science communication becomes even more necessary, but also challenging. It was this context that motivated us to make the call for this special issue of JCOM Latin America on the environment and science communication, which we present in this editorial.

In this article, we carry out a bibliometric analysis of studies carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean on environmental disinformation. Our corpus consisted of 51 articles, identified in the Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions and Scielo databases. The results show continued growth in the production of scientific articles on misinformation and the environment after 2016, with climate change as a recurring theme. They also point to an increase in interest in the topic in the area of Communication & Information. It can also be seen that the field is in an early stage of development, however, it has an international and interdisciplinary character.

The research carried out with the CNPq Research Groups Directory rescued the research groups in Environmental Communication in Brazil, which were categorized based on numerous factors (date of foundation, constitution, institutional links, lines of research and profile of the group leaders , its training and production in the area). The data obtained in the investigation, of a primarily quantitative nature, highlighted the importance of these groups in the production and dissemination of qualified information, allowing us to conclude that they contribute to subsidizing the construction of public policies, as well as to the training of teachers, researchers and professionals in the environmental field.

In this article, we address the interdisciplinary problem of climate change, with emphasis on the interface between Science, Environment and Communication. We understand that climate crisis researchers are important to making their studies understandable to society and conveying information about the urgency of the issue. In 2021, we interviewed 15 researchers to understand how they perceive themselves as disseminators of their knowledge and understand communication actions to cope with the situation. The interpretative analysis was operationalized by thematic categories. The results point to a lack of scientific dissemination practices by researchers, who prefers to be mediated by communication professionals.The results also point to an instrumental understanding of the communication processes.

The present study mapped local media outlets in Michoacán, Mexico, prioritizing science and environmental topics. The work was conducted from February to July 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-two digital media outlets were identified that regularly address environmental and/or science approaches. A survey was conducted with communication and journalism professionals in Michoacán to understand perspectives on specialized journalism in the region. Addressing the challenges requires the reactivation of collaboration networks and medium- to long-term financing strategies to allow for the consolidation of existing initiatives.

Biodiversity and conservation are very popular terms that encompass different kinds of content, and addressing them in educational contexts is challenging. We assume the importance of promoting access to more complex definitions and content on these topics, contributing to the expansion of a reliable repertoire of terms and multifaceted ideas, as well as encouraging engagement with environmental issues. In this article, we discuss how these themes are represented in two immersive exhibitions in Botanical Gardens. To do so, we use Basil Bernstein’s Pedagogic Discourse model, with emphasis on the relationship between discourses from different areas of knowledge and/or forms of knowing (interdisciplinarity). It is considered that a higher degree of interdisciplinarity enhances more multifaceted and complex messages about biodiversity and conservation. The findings reveal that exhibition design plays an important role in expanding interdisciplinarity, and that the context in which the exhibitions are produced and presented also has a significant influence, contributing in different ways to providing access to the complexity of ideas surrounding these themes.

This study examines the regulations and modes of child participation in the co-production of radio and audiovisual media within the framework of a conservation project for the Vinaceous-breasted Amazon parrot, involving various local stakeholders. Drawing upon Cultural Studies and with a focus on participatory actions, audiovisual records of co-creation activities and their outputs were analyzed. Four main modes of child participation emerged: (1) contextualized, (2) symbolic, (3) technical-aesthetic, and (4) identity-related. This research represents a significant, albeit initial, step in systematizing a dialogue among the fields of participatory science communication research and practice, childhood studies, and biodiversity conservation.

This article presents an analysis of activities at the Odilza Fernandes Bittar Environmental Education Center, through observation of a guided tour carried out with teachers in Campo Grande-MS, Brazil. This is a qualitative research based on the Anthropological Theory of Didactics. It highlights the integration of Science and Environmental Education knowledge into the school curriculum. The space is a valuable resource for addressing socio-environmental issues, contributing to scientific dissemination. However, it pointed out the need for planning actions with schools, due to the limited time on guided visits, which makes the approach difficult as pointed out by theoretical assumptions.

The world population ages coincidentally with a critical environmental situation due to climate change which threatens vulnerable populations, including many older adults. An exercise to communicate the risks of climate change is presented, based on detecting from a survey the knowledge and attitudes of this population on the subject. This survey was the basis from a workshop to promote self-care in the face of environmental risks faced by the elderly. The workshop was useful to reduce ignorance about the subject and to promote self-care and social responsibility. These aspects will be incorporated in museographic script adaptable to different contexts and needs

This article presents the experience of collaborative and interdisciplinary work between scientists and communicators, in the framework of the Marine-Coastal Stressors Research Network in Latin America and the Caribbean (REMARCO), created in 2018. It reflects on the actions achieved since its creation, and the dynamics established between the scientific and communication groups. It is concluded that the collaborative work has allowed scientists to learn how to disseminate the results of their research, while communicators acquire technical knowledge on the problem of marine-coastal stressors, achieving synergies for the benefit of scientific dissemination; with improvement areas that should be solved soon.