ChemKom

Strategic science communication on the risks posed by ‘forever’ chemicals

The ChemKom collaborative project aims to examine organisational science-related communication in various arenas, using per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) – also known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their persistence – as a case study. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of scientific (non-)knowledge as a resource, as well as to the temporal dynamics of the debate.

The EU is currently considering restrictions on the entire group of PFAS substances, which comprises more than 10,000 chemicals and which, due to their persistence in the environment, are virtually non-degradable. To date, there has been very little social science research into how society deals with PFAS or into the public debate on the subject in the media.
The overarching research question of the ChemKom project is: How do relevant organisations communicate strategically about PFAS in various arenas of science communication, and how is this communication received?  The research consortium partners – ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research, Frankfurt (lead), the University of Hamburg, UfU – Independent Institute for Environmental Issues, Berlin, and the journalists Carina Frey and Rainer Kurlemann – are addressing this question through five interlinked work packages. The sub-project based at the University of Hamburg comprises a cross-national and cross-media analysis of the media-public ‘issue attention cycles’ surrounding PFAS, as well as an overview of the positions taken by relevant organisational actors. This work package analyses the media portrayal of ‘forever chemicals’ in order to identify the evolution of the issue and the organisations playing a key role in it.  

Given the significance of the mass media for public and political debate on the environmental risks posed by industrial-scale products such as PFAS, the institutionalisation of ‘forever chemicals’ as a topic of media coverage is examined methodologically through:

• Qualitative media content analyses of relevant actors, the treatment of scientific (non-)knowledge, and the temporal dynamics of the debate across different countries.
• Content analyses of digital communication platforms such as short-message services.