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Public engagement professionals: Exploring ethical tensions in communication, engagement and co-creation
Clare Wilkinson1, Aleksandra Stelmach1,2, Michael Parker3
1UWE Bristol, UK.
None:
Recent decades have seen the rising establishment of public engagement professionals supporting communication and engagement in the contexts of science and health research. This article explores how public engagement professionals consider the ethical dimensions of their work. Based on analysis of 17 interviews with science communication and public engagement specialists at UK academic institutions and in practice settings, we examine the ways in which they frame ethical issues associated with engagement, as well as how they frame both publics and researchers. In doing so, we explore two tensions that together highlight how the rising popularity of engagement methods, including engaged research, can increase awareness of the need to ethically scrutinise engagement and associated practices. We also argue that public engagement professionals can further contribute to and advance academic discussion around engagement, arguing that ongoing research with practitioners is beneficial for academic understanding of communication, engagement and engaged research.
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Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...

