Contributing to world's largest encylopedia: my experiences as a Wikipedia science communicator

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Femke J. M. M. Nijsse
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Scientific Paper ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Years Of Experience ◽  
The Uk

<p>Every month, millions of people read about climate change on Wikipedia. However, the information is often outdated and written by non-experts with strong opinions, such as climate activists and climate contrarians. Based on my six years of experience of writing on Wikipedia, I’ve come to the conclusion Wikipedia that is an undervalued piece of the science communication landscape.</p><p>Wikipedia as a medium enjoys high levels of trust compared to traditional news media, at least in the UK. It is built by a game of consensus building and negotiation between people with differing views. I will distill the experiences I have had on effective collaboration with non-experts who expose complexity in my explanations, dealing with those in denial of climate change and more recent examples of the presence of climate activism.</p><p>For me editing has also been useful for my research, and I believe the same will be true for other experts,. As writing for Wikipedia is very similar to carrying out a literature review, it is especially worthwhile for early career scientists or others venturing into new topic. It has often helped me to better put my own research into context. Rewording scientific literature for a broad public allows for a better appreciation of the material as well. A further validation can be obtained by submitting your Wikipedia article as a scientific paper to various WikiJournals.</p>

scholarly journals Polarisation vs consensus-building: How US and German news media portray climate change as a feature of political identities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Tschötschel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Media System ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Media

Perceptions of climate politics often align with individual political leaning and associated media consumption patterns, pointing to a need for a fine-grained understanding of how the media integrate climate change with political identities. This study presents an in-depth qualitative analysis of political identity portrayals from 229 articles published in six German and US news outlets during May-July 2019. The results show that the outlets consumed by left- and right-leaning audiences emphasise oppositional identity portrayals, portraying features that are likely to trigger a negative response towards political identities typically op-posed by their recipients. The outlets with a more balanced or centrist audience offer a wider array of identity portrayals and emphasise policy questions over fundamental beliefs. Observed patterns differ considerably between Germany and the US, reflecting political and media system differences. The results add to understanding how the media contribute to political polarisation and consensus-building regarding climate change.

scholarly journals Diversifying or Reinforcing Science Communication? Examining the Flow of Frame Contagion Across Media Platforms

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-117
Author(s):  
S. Mo Jones-Jang ◽  
P. Sol Hart ◽  
Lauren Feldman ◽  
Won-Ki Moon
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Time Series ◽  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Online News ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Large Dataset ◽  
Intermedia Agenda Setting ◽  
Technological Affordances

This study investigated whether increased technological affordances, characterized by the rise of social media, diversified communication in climate change discourse. Extending the literature of intermedia agenda setting, this study examined agenda and frame contagion across Twitter and online news media. Using a large dataset of media content about climate change, time-series analysis showed that news media played a major role in setting agendas and frames, but Twitter has increased its dominance in climate change discussions. The findings address both opportunities for strategic science communication and challenges resulting from unverified scientific claims (e.g., hoax frames) spread on social media.

The Information Deficit Model and Climate Change Communication

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Change Communication

Many publics remain divided about the existence and consequences of anthropogenic climate change despite scientific consensus. A popular approach to climate change communication, and science communication more generally, is the information deficit model. The deficit model assumes that gaps between scientists and the public are a result of a lack of information or knowledge. As a remedy for this gap, the deficit model is a one-way communication model where information flows from experts to publics in an effort to change individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. Approaches to climate change communication that reflect the deficit model include websites, social media, mobile applications, news media, documentaries and films, books, and scientific publications and technical reports. The deficit model has been highly criticized for being overly simplistic and inaccurately characterizing the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, particularly for politically polarized issues like climate change. Even so, it continues to be an integral part of climate change communication research and practice. In an effort to address the inadequacies of the deficit model, scholars and practitioners often utilize alternative forms of public engagement, including the contextual model, the public engagement model, and the lay expertise model. Each approach to public engagement carries with it a unique set of opportunities and challenges. Future work in climate change communication should explore when and how to most effectively use the models of public engagement that are available.

scholarly journals Confidence in Local, National, and International Scientists on Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Aaron C. Sparks ◽  
Heather Hodges ◽  
Sarah Oliver ◽  
Eric R. A. N. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
News Media ◽  
Internet Survey ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Scientific Report ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Change Beliefs

In many public policy areas, such as climate change, news media reports about scientific research play an important role. In presenting their research, scientists are providing guidance to the public regarding public policy choices. How do people decide which scientists and scientific claims to believe? This is a question we address by drawing on the psychology of persuasion. We propose the hypothesis that people are more likely to believe local scientists than national or international scientists. We test this hypothesis with an experiment embedded in a national Internet survey. Our experiment yielded null findings, showing that people do not discount or ignore research findings on climate change if they come from Europe instead of Washington-based scientists or a leading university in a respondent’s home state. This reinforces evidence that climate change beliefs are relatively stable, based on party affiliation, and not malleable based on the source of the scientific report.

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