Experts and science communication in time of Covid vaccination campaign: the Italian case

Since the first COVID-19 infections were recorded in January 2020, the connection between science and communication has grown significantly, playing a crucial role in providing citizens with information and guidance on how to address the pandemic and the various scientific advancements related to the evolving vaccination campaign. Particularly noteworthy has been the substantial involvement of scientific experts in media coverage and their exposure to the public’s advice. With the symbolic launch of Vaccine Day, the role of science communication experts has proven to be instrumental in effectively promoting interventions supporting vaccine choices through mass media and addressing instances of misinformation that can cause social alarm. From the perspective of studies concerning the interaction between science and society, we aim to investigate the construction of the expert’s image and scientific communication. This will be accomplished by comparing the self-representation of experts visible in Italy through their content published on social networks with their media representation in daily newspapers. Specifically, we intend to analyze all cultural products extracted using keywords such as «vaccine», «expert/scientist», «COVID/coronavirus» and a list of 33 experts selected from a preliminary survey, individually associated with the keywords during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. We hypothesize the existence of new models of scientific communication and different communication strategies among experts.