Chemkom - Science communication on forever chemicals

Strategic science communication on the risks of forever chemicals

The project ChemKom aims to investigate organisational science communication in and across different arenas using the example of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) - also known as “forever chemicals” due to their non-degradability. Particular attention is paid to the handling of scientific (non-)knowledge as a resource and to the temporal dynamics of the debate.
The EU is currently examining a restriction on the entire group of PFAS substances, which comprises more than 10,000 chemicals, all of which are practically non-degradable due to their persistence in the environment. To date, there is hardly any social science research on how society deals with risks associated with PFAS and the public and media debate on this issue. The overarching research question of the ChemKom project thus is: How do relevant organisations communicate strategically on PFAS in different arenas of science communication and how is this communication received?
The research partners ISOE - Institute for Social-Ecological Research Frankfurt (Head of research consortium), Universität Hamburg,  UfU - Independent Institute for Environmental Issues Berlin, and the journalists Carina Frey and Rainer Kurlemann explore this question in five interlinked work packages. The sub-project based at Universität Hamburg includes a country- and media-comparative analysis of the media issue attention cycle of PFAS as well as an overview of the positions of relevant organisational actors. This work package analyses the media image of forever chemicals to describe their career as a public issue and the organisations that play a key role in the dynamics of PFAS’ public life.

Considering the importance of the mass media for public and policy debates about the environmental risks of large-scale technical products such as PFAS, the question of how forever chemicals are established as a public issue is methodically examined through:

• A qualitative media content analyses of relevant actors, the handling of scientific (non-)knowledge and the temporal dynamics of the debate in a country comparison.
• Content analyses of digital communication arenas such as short message services.

 By analysing the topic of PFAS across several arenas and countries, the project promises important insights on the strategic science communication on chemicals and their environmental impacts. The project thus contributes to the emerging field of organisational analysis of science communication.