Science Communicators and Audience Values #aejmc14

How perceptions of audience values influence science communication values and practices

Expert interviews with science communicatorsBy Paige Brown, Rosanne Scholl

The Intersection of Value Systems

Popular science communicators are a key link between scientists and publics

Tension between news values, science values, and (assumed) audience values

But first: Who are Science Communicators?

Individuals who communicate science primarily to lay audiencesNon-fiction book authorsNews and magazine editors JournalistsUniversity PR writers who write about science in public forums (blogs, etc.)Science bloggers

What are Values?

Scientific Values: empiricism, replication

News Values: newsworthiness“The only causal explanation for

the existence of news values is journalists’ notions of audience interest” (Donsbach, 2004)

Fundamental Human ValuesSchwartz, S.H. (1992)

“desirable transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity” (Schwartz 1994)

Schwartz’ Value Paradigm

Where do science communication

& news values

fit in?

http://valuesandframes.org/handbook/2-how-values-work/

This Study

How do popular science communicators reflect perceived interests and values of their audiences when selecting and telling stories about science?

Assumptions: Science communicators cater to perceived reader values while upholding their own values as scientists, journalists, educators, etc.

Methods

In-person, in-depth elite interviews with a total of 14 science communicators in North Carolina

Broad recruitment based on active practice in the communication of science to primarily lay audiences, through blogs, newspapers, books and other digital science news sites

Methods

Semi-structured interviews (45–60 minutes) using “guided introspection” interview protocol (Dexter, 2006)

Inductive and grounded theory coding methods, allowing for emergent themes and coding according to Schwartz’s universal human value typology (ATLAS.ti version 7.0.92)

News Values: Relevance & Novelty

Direct relevance to the reader, especially health or medical implications of research findings, is top priority. Novelty and unexpectedness make a good story in the absence of direct relevance. If none of these apply, curiosity is the main hook.

“I mean, most people want to know, how is this going to directly impact my life, you know, and if you’re writing things for newspapers, or about health, or whatever, yeah, you can kind of see that a little bit more clearly. Um, but especially when it’s stuff like particle physics, or, you know, origins of the universe, or things like that, you know, it’s like yeah, there’s not really any immediate connection, but I think that people that read science are curious about that kind of stuff just for its own sake. So, um, in some ways just the fact that it’s something new is more of what you’re trying to convey, rather than immediate personal connection to, you know, subatomic particles (laughs).” #13, Female, Editor, Print

Perceptions of audience valuesDominant themes: “People care about themselves”, “We want to be entertained”, “People that read science are curious”

Obstacles in Science CommunicationMinor theme: Religion and spiritual values

5 (of 14) science communicators mentioned respect for tradition and spiritual human values as obstacles in their science communication work:

“there are people that think that evolution is not real, and that everything right now is exactly the way God made it, initially, and that is going to affect the way they view anything we write about paleontology, or bacteria, or human development.” #1, Male, PIO

“these questions of, you know, who are we? Where did we come from? What are we doing? […] science is one way of answering those questions… religion is another way” #4, Female, Science PR Writer

“Cool” science (sex, dinosaurs) can feed into the human values of stimulation (excitement)

Most science topics require tapping into self-oriented security (health, etc.) or hedonism values (happiness, comfort in life, entertainment

Audiences tend toward the self-interested end of Schwartz’s human value spectrum (power, security & hedonism)

But some communicators work hard to activate self-transcendent values (universalism, self-direction) in their readers through storytelling….

Our science communicators believe…

Activating self-transcendent values

“I’m assuming everybody’s interested in everything, and they should be, and if they’re not, I’m so entertaining as a storyteller that I’m going to get them interested in it.” #11, Male, Author

[Getting people to ask themselves these questions…] “why are we here, where did we come from, what are the origins of, of everything we see around us” #4, Female, Science PR Writer

Thank you!Questions?Please access our data and comment on our paper at F1000Research.com: http://f1000research.com/articles/3-128/v1