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Overall, there are many ways in which scientific ideas on animal welfare are communicated amongst scientists in the scientific discourse community, as well as to the general public. Through scientific papers, seminars, workshops, and webinars, scientists can share information within the scientific discourse community on a specific topic. Animal rights activists also share their ideas and ethics with their discourse communities in very similar ways. When science is shared, aquariums can implement the new science into their protocol for animal welfare. Since these forms of media are often very scientific, they are usually not exposed to the general public. Documentaries such as Blackfish, the documentary created by animal rights activists, and magazines such as National Geographic, a more science-based medium, however, are designed for consumption by the general public. These forms of media are generally much less scientific and appeal to the audience’s emotions much more than relying on facts and concrete information. Misconceptions regarding animal welfare practices and techniques can be easily spread through any forms of media, even those that are generally more scientific, such as scientific papers that have false data. The same ways in which these false claims are spread, they are also countered by true claims from animal welfare experts.
The ethics of aquariums are debated by people of many different backgrounds, over many forms of media, and across many audiences. These publications published by these authors make up the animal welfare discourse community. As animal rights activists become better at selectively choosing information to be in their favor and communicating it in ways that mimic and even improve upon those of the animal welfare discourse community in terms of persuading the broader public, the more animal welfare experts have to refute these claims, not only by using data and scientific fact, but by putting more effort into communicating directly with the public by building coalitions with science writers and popular science publications. Further implications for studying this issue involve finding ways to better fact-check information from sources that may seem reliable, finding ways to teach young students how to better verify information they find that may seem reliable, and finding more effective ways for animal welfare experts to counter false claims.