Brossard aaas 13 0214

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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Thank you

<[email protected]> Twitter: @brossardd

lsc.wisc.edu scimep.wisc.edu