Messiness, Epistemic Asymmetry, and Reflexivity: Exploring Third-Order Communication in the Wild

Current models for the work of science communicators are not always well suited to handling a complex array of different types of expertise and varied stakeholders engaged in wicked problems, such as grand challenges where technology and science are entangled with political, economic, cultural, environmental, and historical issues. When science communicators are called on to increase trust in science and scientific institutions in the eyes of diverse actors, useful insight comes from considering what Irwin (in Routledge Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology. Routledge, 2021) refers to as third-order thinking about science communication. This framing directs attention to messiness, epistemic asymmetries, and reflexivity in a way that resonates with the authors’ experiences as professional science communicators. These conceptual elements are laid out here as a work-in-progress to describe how they help us to comprehend and navigate complex communication challenges.