Comunicação pública e divulgação científica em parques tecnológicos credenciados pelo Sistema Paulista de Parques Tecnológicos
Abstract
The study characterized the area of communication and the scientific popularization in science
park environments, which aims to strengthen science, technology and innovation through the
realization of partnerships and, thus, boost the socioeconomic development of a country. The
study assumes that, although the science parks are projects that reach the most diverse agents
and receive public funding, they have an unidirectional public communication, which is not
very accessible to the citizen. In this sense, this research maps the strategies and tools of
scientific outreach used by science park environments and analyzes journalistic products
published by science parks. It also verifies if they approach the STS Studies – which explores
the importance of the democratization of knowledge from the relations between these three
agents: science, technology and society – and the democratic model of public communication
according to the criteria already established in the field literature. This qualitative exploratory
research used mixed data collection procedures and considered the communication of four
science parks that have definitive accreditation by the São Paulo System of Science Parks –
Science Parks of Ribeirão Preto, Santos, São Carlos and São José dos Campos. This study starts
with the presentation of some bibliographical studies, which will help to understand the
importance of public communication and scientific outreach in the area of science, technology
and innovation and will show the historical and current contexts of technological parks in
Brazil, more specifically in the State of São Paulo. It proceeds with a field study with interviews
with press officers, outsourced agents and managers of science parks. Finally, analyzes are
presented – from interviews and journalistic products – to evaluate whether the communication
area of these parks make public communication and whether they are similar to the preestablished
criteria of communication in STS Studies. The results found herein contribute to
studies in public communication of science, scientific outreach in innovation environments and
public perception of science and technology.