scholarly journals Impacts of genre and access on science discussions: ‘The New Reddit Journal of Science’

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. A04
Author(s):  
Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder ◽  
Alexander Mahmou-Werndli
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
Discussion Boards ◽  
Science Content ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Science News ◽  
Science In Society

Which genre of science writing contributes most to public understanding, and how does that understanding happen? Working within a science in society approach, this paper examines public engagement with science as it occurs in the comments and discussion boards of r/science. Researchers use content analysis to identify relevant concept categories and code comments for interaction with science content. The resulting data are analyzed by genre (scientific news journalism, press release, and research article) and open access status, revealing differences in public engagement with implications for science communicators and scholars seeking to understand how the public interacts with science news.

Psychology and its publics

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Pettit ◽  
Jacy L. Young
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Relationship

This paper introduces the special issue dedicated to ‘Psychology and its Publics’. The question of the relationship between psychologists and the wider public has been a central matter of concern to the historiography of psychology. Where critical historians tend to assume a pliant audience, eager to adopt psychological categories, psychologists themselves often complain about the public misunderstanding of them. Ironically, both accounts share a flattened understanding of the public. We turn to research on the public understanding of science (PUS), the public engagement with science (PES) and communications studies to develop a rich account of the circuitry that ties together psychological experts and their subjects.

Mundane science use in a practice theoretical perspective: Different understandings of the relations between citizen-consumers and public communication initiatives build on scientific claims

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bente Halkier
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
Understanding Of Science

Public communication initiatives play a part in placing complicated scientific claims in citizen-consumers’ everyday contexts. Lay reactions to scientific claims framed in public communication, and attempts to engage citizens, have been important subjects of discussion in the literatures of public understanding and public engagement with science. Many of the public communication initiatives, however, address lay people as consumers rather than citizens. This creates specific challenges for understanding public engagement with science and scientific citizenship. The article compares five different understandings of the relations between citizen-consumers and public issue communication involving science, where the first four types are widely represented in the Public Understanding of Science discussions. The fifth understanding is a practice theoretical perspective. The article suggests how the public understanding of and engagement in science literature can benefit from including a practice theoretical approach to research about mundane science use and public engagement.

scholarly journals Tension between visibility and invisibility: Science communication in new information environments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Metag
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Information ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The visibility and invisibility of scientific knowledge, its creation, and of scientists are at the core of science communication research. Thus, prominent paradigms, such as the public understanding of science or public engagement with science and technology, have implications for the visibility of scientific knowledge in the scientific community and among the public. This article posits that visibility in science communication is achieved with the availability of scientific knowledge, the approval of its dissemination, and its accessibility to third parties. The public understanding of science and public engagement with science paradigms emphasize different aspects of visibility with the latter focusing on the visibility of the creation of scientific knowledge more than public understanding of science which focuses on the knowledge itself. The digital information environment has engendered new formats and possibilities for visibility but also new risks, thereby creating tensions in science communication.

scholarly journals The crisis of the "Public Understanding of Science" in Great Britain

2003 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. F01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Pitrelli
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Relationship

In a brief article published by Science1 last October, British scientists stated that the expression "Public Understanding of Science" (PUS), which was traditionally employed in Anglosaxon societies to refer to the issue of the relationship between science, technology and society, is out-of-date. It should be replaced by "Public Engagement with Science and Technology" (PEST), a new acronym that clearly invites to reconceptualise the relationship between science and the public. The new approach involves the engagement of the public or rather the publics of science, through dialogue, in particular through an open and equal-to-equal discussion between scientists and non-experts that would enable non-experts to become the actual protagonists in the scientific decisions producing social effects.

scholarly journals Biofilm Control Strategies: Engaging with the Public

Antibiotics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 465
Author(s):  
Joanna Verran ◽  
Sarah Jackson ◽  
Antony Scimone ◽  
Peter Kelly ◽  
James Redfern
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
The Public ◽  
Biofilm Control ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Plaque Control

There are few peer-reviewed publications about public engagement with science that are written by microbiologists; those that exist tend to be a narrative of an event rather than a hypothesis-driven investigation. However, it is relatively easy for experienced scientists to use a scientific method in their approach to public engagement. This short communication describes three public engagement activities hosted by the authors, focused on biofilm control: hand hygiene, plaque control and an externally applied antimicrobial coating. In each case, audience engagement was assessed using quantitative and/or qualitative methods. A critical evaluation of the findings enabled the construction of a public engagement ‘tick list’ for future events that would enable a hypothesis-driven approach with more effective communication activities and more robust evaluation.

Engaging the Public at a Science Festival

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Rose ◽  
Kaine Korzekwa ◽  
Dominique Brossard ◽  
Dietram A. Scheufele ◽  
Laura Heisler
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Human Gene ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Issue ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Risk And Benefit ◽  
Science Activities

Theoretically and methodologically sound research on the reach and impact of public engagement practices continues to lag behind. Using the 2015 Wisconsin Science Festival as context, we empirically investigate the impacts of a public engagement activity about a nascent and controversial scientific issue, human gene editing. Overall, we find the panel increased participants’ understanding of the complexities of human gene editing, as demonstrated by increases in knowledge and the moral acceptability of the technology among respondents, as well as the associated risk and benefit perceptions. Practical and theoretical implications for science festivals and public engagement with science activities are discussed.

Destroying iPhones: Feral science and the antithetical citizen

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 731-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Michael
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Destructive Testing ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Youtube Videos ◽  
Understanding Of Science

This exploratory article considers the implications of a particular genre – YouTube videos of iPhone destruction – for the Citizen Science and Public Understanding of Science/Public Engagement with Science and Technology. Situating this genre within a broader TV tradition of ‘destructive testing’ programmes, there is a description of the forms of destruction visited upon the iPhone, and an analysis of the features shared by the videos (e.g. mode of address, enactments of the experiment). Drawing on the notion of the ‘idiotic’, there is a discussion of the genre that aims to treat its evident lack of scientific and citizenly ‘seriousness’ productively. In the process of this discussion, the notions of ‘feral science’ and ‘antithetical citizenship’ are proposed, and some of their ramifications for Citizen Science and Public Understanding of Science/Public Engagement with Science and Technology presented.

scholarly journals Researchers: share your passion for science!

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1507-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Concannon ◽  
Muriel Grenon
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Time Constraints ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Positive Impacts

The promotion of the public understanding of science has many positive impacts on society, including expanding the reach of science to a broader range of individuals and having a favourable impact on the economy. It also results in many benefits for researchers involved, including the development of their communication skills and improvement in the quality of their research. Despite increased awareness of the importance of public engagement (PE), the involvement of researchers has only slightly increased in the last 10 years. Time constraints, lack of opportunity and lack of funding are the main barriers preventing their participation. We propose that joining an existing PE programme can be a good way for scientists to overcome these barriers. We list specific examples of established activities that are easy for researchers to get involved in, allowing them to share their enthusiasm for science.

scholarly journals The Power of Place

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-53
Author(s):  
Catharina Landstrom ◽  
Stewart Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Risk Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Lay Members ◽  
Local Engagement ◽  
The Uk

Investigating the role of geographical location in public engagement with science we examine the West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership’s undertaking of one of the most extensive local public engagements with environmental risk science in the UK. The case study highlights the transformative impacts of this three-year long local engagement on both science and the public. Differently from other invited public engagements, organised as experiments controlled by scientists in spaces set aside from the everyday, the Partnership’s lay members led a process unfolding in the place that was potentially at risk. The Partnership had the authority to demand that scientists addressed issues of local interest. We frame the analysis with the notions ‘re-situating technoscience' and ‘re-assembling the public' to illuminate how scientific knowledge claims were modified and a new local public emerged, at the intersection of public engagement with science and public participation in environmental risk governance.

Old Media, New Media, and Public Engagement with Science and Technology

2017 ◽  
pp. 57-72
Author(s):  
Yulia A. Strekalova ◽  
Janice L. Krieger ◽  
Rachel E. Damiani ◽  
Sriram Kalyanaraman ◽  
Daisy Zhe Wang
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Technology Innovations ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Individual

Mass media are, collectively, an effective mechanism for the engagement of the general public in a debate and exchange of information related to science and technology innovations. Whether the aim is to affect change at the individual, population, or policy-making level, public understanding of science and interaction between experts and lay audiences are paramount. This chapter describes a case study of a cybersecurity forum that provided an opportunity for information technology experts to share their knowledge with studio and social media audiences. Reviewing conceptual and practical implications of the case study, the chapter discusses how public engagement efforts could capitalize on the strength of both traditional and online media and introduce interactive programs that cross these two media spaces.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document