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Conclusion
Summary
This concluding chapter synthesizes the anthology's findings on how both knowledge and counter-knowledge discourses are constructed through media logic across different outlets, showing how news media both reinforce and contest institutional science positions in ongoing public negotiations about trust in expertise. The chapter emphasizes that even in polarized media environments, including social media, discursive contestation of scientific authority follows structured patterns tied to specific media forms.
The anthology concludes with a multifaceted answer to the question: Whose truths? Questions of definition in the age of contested science. Both knowledge and counter-knowledge discourses are constructed within a context of media logic depending on the specific outlet in question. News media contribute to both constructions and contestations of institutional science positions within ongoing public negotiations about trust in science and the boundaries of scientific and technological expertise. Also within a highly polarised media environment, particularly on social media platforms, discursive constructions counter-knowledge engage in similar struggles to define facts and truth in ways that evoke wider political and populist discourses, often mimicking scientific and journalistic styles. The studies in this volume show that public discussions of science call for epistemic as well as democratic understanding of science to properly engage in discourses of climate change, technological risk, and environmental degradation.
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