Paradigm change for science communication: commercial science needs a critical public

With private patronage, the pressure grows to commercialize scientific research and its results. The business model extends into the laboratory, and applies also to communication. The author explores potential risks for science communication in this changing context. In product marketing and public relations, hyperbole and sensationalism are normal modes of operation. ‘Innocent fraud’ (Galbraith) and more ‘bullshit’ (Frankfurt) are likely risks with this communication practice, and those risks call for increased vigilance by knowledge consumers. The author points to some indicators of the growth of critical publics for science: the long-term waves of mass media coverage, the cycles of hype and disappointed expectations, increased scientific literacy, and the displacement of scientific ideology by sceptical and utilitarian attitudes in high-tech knowledge societies. In this context, the paradigm of science communication is no longer to deliver public acceptance, but to enhance public scrutiny of private scientific developments.