Finally, turning from journalistic cover-age to direct communication implies a shift fromㄙexternal observationㄙto self-presentation of science. Selection by journalists and editors implies social relevance: coverage in the New York Times sends a different message of importance than stories lodged on the website of a university. Self-presentation of science cannot replace the signalling/surveillance function performed by journalists and editors when they select something as relevant for public consumption. Whatever the future will bring, the complexity of the new media landscape increases as the structure of communication becomes more granular. It offers many new opportunities and options for science to communicate with public. Online communities are developing that are devoted to specific scientific interests; these communities are small but extremely beneficial for the participants. The traditional media system, in particular journalism, will adapt to the online environment and will continue to provide major content with the concomitant social legitimacy that their selection provides. The new communication environment will be a mixture of journalistic media —increasingly online—and social media, and both will be interdependent in many ways. Scientific communicators should embrace the social media and experiment with them, but whether these channels will replace the established ways of journalistic observation of science remains to be seen.