brossard aaas 13 0214
TRANSCRIPT
Dominique Brossard, Professor Department of Life Sciences Communication College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UW-Madison
UW-Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies
AAAS 2013, Boston MA, February 14, 2013
Science and the Public In New Information Environments
This Talk: An Overview
• The online environment for science news • The science information consumer • Online content and science • To comment or not to comment?
“it’s not possible to talk about science blogging without talking about scientists blogging, or more broadly about scientists writing.”
Franci, M. (2011). Nature Chemistry 3, 183-184
Science Communication is Redefined
cohort shifts with more junior scientists thinking that “[n]ew findings of public interest should be communicated to the public immediately”
…Direct Communication Endorsed Particularly By Younger Scientists
(Data based on: Corley et al. 2011)
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… And (Science) Information Can Go Viral
Political news through indirect channnels Penn Virality study
Berger & Milkman 2010 5
THE PROMISE OF THE NEW INATION COMEALTH
provide essentially unlimited information on a large number of issues, which can be obtained anywhere
and with relatively limited effort
and opportunities for citizens to connect with others through social media and other 2.0-type tools to make sense of this information
New Communication Environments …
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This Talk: An Overview
• The online environment for science news • The science information consumer • Online conversations about science • To comment or not to comment?
A New Active Online Science Audience Online
National Science Board 2012
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Aggregate Cohort Shifts Among Audiences For Science Information
Su et al.. 2012
12
40
45
50
55
60
Traditional media mixed
(23% of pop.)
Television (20% of pop.)
Newspaper (16% of pop.)
Online / Traditional media
mixed (34% of pop.)
Online-Only (7% of pop.)
Perce
ntage
(sc
ale ra
nge p
artia
lly di
splay
ed) male
female
BUT FOR NOW, THESE SHIFTS ARE NOT ACROSS THE BOARD
But For Now, These Shifts Are Not Across The Board
Su et al. 2012
13
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
Traditional media mixed
(23% of pop.)
Television (20% of pop.)
Newspaper (16% of pop.)
Online / Traditional media
mixed (34% of pop.)
Online-Only (7% of pop.)
Perce
ntage
(sc
ale ra
nge p
artia
lly di
splay
ed) Education low
Education high
BUT FOR NOW, THESE SHIFTS ARE NOT ACROSS THE BOARD
But For Now, These Shifts Are Not Across The Board
Su et al. 2012
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This Talk: An Overview
• The online environment for science news • The science information consumer • Online content and science • To comment or not to comment?
What Do These New Information Environments Look Like for the Science Information Consumer?
Ladwig et al. 2010
For nanotechnology, discrepancy between Searches:
what people look for (tracked by Nielsen online)
Results: what search terms are suggested to
them (Google suggest data) what they find (content analysis of
top ranked search results in Google)
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What This Means for Science-Informed Audiences
Potential of “self-reinforcing informational spirals”
Are opinions formed based on how Google presents results rather than on what individuals are searching?
Google Suggestions
Searches Traffic
Page ranks
Li et al. 2011; Brossard & Scheufele 2013
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Information is Contextualized
Online newspaper articles or TV shows not consumed in isolated fashion, but contextualized reader comments and feedback Facebook posts/links with “Like” buttons
and comments from other users Tweets - RT …
… how are these formats impacting consumers views?
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Online Conversations Are Not Neutral
Uncertainty Emotions
Disagreement Name calling
Tone of Comments In Blogs Change Our Judgments About Online Science Stories
Experiment involving a representative sample of the American population (N=1,183)
Subjects randomly assigned to 2 types of comments following a balanced news story about nanosilver: Rude blog comments Civil blog comments
Anderson et al. (in press)
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Predicting Nanotechnology Risk Perception (benefits < risk)
In a nutshell …
People who read the uncivil comments (which use the same screen names and content and just differ on the tone) end up walking away from the story with a much more polarized understanding of the actual risks connected with nano
In Sum …
An evolving science communication environment, in which the science information consumer constantly encounters contextualized information in an online world
How do we deal with comments?
Research in science communication needs to inform online science communication practice
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