Science communication in a post-truth world: Promises and pitfalls

The mass decline of biodiversity (Rippleet al. 2017) in this post-truth era (Lewandowsky et al. 2017) means that reliable and influential conservation science communication is more important than ever. In this era, truths and lies are increasingly difficult to distinguish, posing a major challenge to science communication (Lewandowsky et al. 2017). As a result, conservation scientists and managers are grappling with new ways of countering misinformation and sharing factual information. Facebook, Twitter,YouTube, Instagram, blogs, online news outlets (eg The Conversation), web comics, and satirical articles all provide communication opportunities, but we still have a poor understanding of which of these are most effective, and when and where to best communicate science.