Divulgação científica na universidade pública: um estudo de caso na Assessoria de Comunicação da Universidade Federal de Alagoas

Abstract

In the current Brazilian political, economic and social scenario – considering budget reductions in the higher education and science, the surge of obfuscation of scientific knowledge by the wide dissemination of fake news and the propagation of speeches intended to discredit public institutions of higher education –, public universities need to prioritize the socialization of science produced in the academy, as well as expand the arguments about its relevance in the development of society. In order to help the organizational communication to be seen by the public university as a strategic tool to exercise its social function, this case study had as main objective to investigate the work of scientific dissemination carried out in the communication office (ASCOM) from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) in an effort to present a proposal for a procedure for the communication sector. This investigation can be characterized as a descriptive study of applied nature and qualitative approach. As means of investigation, bibliographic research, documental research, participant observation and case study are qualified and data were treated according to Bardin's Content Analysis. To achieve the major objective, after the theoretical foundation, a search for current normative and strategic documents was carried out to analyze the relationship between institutional guidelines and scientific dissemination. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with thirteen subjects from the university community, considering employees of ASCOM, the research department (PROPEP) and scientists. The main findings made possible the construction of a framework with the difficulties mentioned in the scientific dissemination process at UFAL, which were divided into two dimensions: internal factors and external factors. The results achieved validated the importance of establishing instruments that give guidelines and standards to the activities carried out by ASCOM and by other departments of the university, since the biggest identified problems are linked to the absence of norms and definitions. The technicaltechnological product presented constitutes a Proposal for a Scientific Dissemination Procedure with intents to contribute to the institutionalization of the process conducted by ASCOM in partnership with PROPEP, UFAL researchers and the press. Finally, this study aims to offer contributions to standardize the flow of scientific dissemination, enhance dialogue with society, restore the image of the public university and guide other studies that investigate similar processes.