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Paper short abstract

Sleep has become part of the mediatic agenda in Uruguay in the last decades, often relying on data provided by scientific research to support their claims. Drawing on newspaper articles and radio and tv shows from 2003 to 2024, we analyze the process of science communication about sleep in Uruguay.

Paper long abstract

Sleep has become part of the mediatic agenda in Uruguay in the last decades, often relying on data provided by scientific research to support their claims. In our study, we analyzed the written press published from 2003 to 2024 and audiovisual material broadcast on open radio and television in Uruguay from 2015 to 2024. In this paper, we analyze the process of science communication to provide insight into the discourses being reinforced around sleep. We focus on a few illustrative examples from the Uruguayan press and compare them to the referenced research papers. We observe that in the process of science communication, scientific data, journalists, expert sources, and audiences come together to co-construct narratives about good and bad sleep while also contributing to the characterization of Uruguayans' sleep. Such a process leads to notions of what a healthy sleep is according to medicine, what is considered a deviation, and problems and strategies disseminated by the media to approach and prevent related health issues. In this sense, the biomedical perspective prevails over social, cultural and labor factors that may influence sleep and rest. We also note that while the audiovisual pieces reference fewer and local research sources, the Uruguayan written press often reproduces notes provided by larger global media conglomerates, therefore introducing foreign academic references to Uruguayans and globalizing claims about sleep. This way, we aim at contributing to the discussion about science communication processes, which while problematic, is also important to attract visibility and increase the impact of academic research.