Ethical Principles for Common Ground in Science Communication Theory and Practice (Roundtable): Reflections on Risk Communication in the Aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

In science communication, sharing information with peers and broader audiences is often taken as a moral value, along with principles like transparency, participation, and honesty. Yet, it is also acknowledged that there are limits to sharing knowledge or making it publicly available. Some types of information (e.g., personal data, security-related information) remain classified for long periods of time – and often with good reason. High-risk organizations (e.g., nuclear power plants, airports, emergency departments) in particular can be reluctant to share sensitive information at all, at the risk of being accused of ‘holding back’ vital information from the public in the event of an incident or accident. This is what happened in Japan in 2011, when the Japanese authorities failed to communicate reliable radiation data to the public in a timely manner, pushing ordinary citizens to collect and analyze their own radiation pollution data. In this presentation/roundtable discussion, I draw on this example of citizen science in radiation protection and my experiences as an embedded sociologist at a nuclear research facility to consider how governmental agencies and research institutions can make themselves a more trusted (or less unreliable) information source for the public at large. Now that the public is increasingly becoming involved in citizen science initiatives and new ways of communicating science, agencies and institutes can no longer wish citizen science away. They must develop new principles, tools, and infrastructures that distinguish themselves from citizen scientists, whilst also forging alliances with citizen groups. My reflections build on work by Joan Leach and Fabien Medvecky on the ethics of science communication (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-32116-1).