scholarly journals “Making us see science” Visual images in popular science articles and science journalism

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Hornmoen
Keyword(s):  
Visual Representations ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Visual Composition ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Science Stories ◽  
Scientific American

The article explores how scientific research and scientists are represented visually in popular science and science journalism. It discusses communicative functions and cultural meanings of visual elements in science stories. Drawing on concepts from the visual grammar developed by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, the author indicates how different kinds of modality are used to address the audience in popular science articles in Scientific American and Illustrert Vitenskap (a Scandinavian magazine). It is argued that the visual elements in popular scientific magazines conventionally are arranged in a manner coinciding with a pedagogical/educational intent typical of much popular science, taking the readers from a reality they are presumed to have experienced towards more abstract scientific knowledge. However, the two magazines analyzed differ markedly with respect to the audience competence they implicate in their visual representations. The level of visual abstraction in Scientific American contributes to creating an identity for its audience as belonging to well educated and advanced elites, as opposed to the images of Illustrert Vitenskap, where the emphasis to a larger extent is on a naturalistic coding. The author goes on to discuss how photographs, visual composition and verbal text work together in a multimodal rhetoric typical of many science and health stories in Norwegian newspapers.   

scholarly journals Can scientists fill the science journalism void? Online public engagement with science stories authored by scientists

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Barel-Ben David ◽  
Erez S. Garty ◽  
Ayelet Baram-Tsabari
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Science Story ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Science Stories ◽  
Science News

AbstractIn many countries the public’s main source of information about science and technology is the mass media. Unfortunately, in recent years traditional journalism has experienced a collapse, and science journalism has been a major casualty. One potential remedy is to encourage scientists to write for news media about science. On these general news platforms, scientists’ stories would have to compete for attention with other news stories on hard (e.g. politics) and entertaining (e.g. celebrity news) topics written by professional writers. Do they stand a chance?This study aimed to quantitatively characterize audience interactions as an indicator of interest in science news stories authored by early career scientists (henceforth ‘scientists’) trained to function as science reporters, as compared to news items written by reporters and published in the same news outlets.To measure users’ behavior, we collected data on the number of clicks, likes, comments and average time spent on page. The sample was composed of 150 science items written by 50 scientists trained to contribute popular science stories in the Davidson Institute of Science Education reporters’ program and published on two major Israeli news websites - Mako and Ynet between July 2015 to January 2018. Each science item was paired with another item written by the website’s organic reporter, and published on the same channel as the science story (e.g., tourism, health) and the same close time. Overall significant differences were not found in the public’s engagement with the different items. Although, on one website there was a significant difference on two out of four engagement types, the second website did not have any difference, e.g., people did not click, like or comment more on items written by organic reporters than on the stories written by scientists. This creates an optimistic starting point for filling the science news void by scientists as science reporters.

Making Biosciences Visible for Popular Consumption: Approaching Image–Text Relations in Newscientist.com Through a Critical Multimodal Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-392
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska
Keyword(s):  
Popular Science ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Multimodal Analysis ◽  
Science Discourse

Salience or visibility of science-related issues can be strategically projected by means of linguistic and visual resources. This article presents a methodology for examining the relations between the textual properties of popular science discourse and the visual features of accompanying images. The advantages of this approach are demonstrated through a multimodal analysis of a sample of biomedical articles from New Scientist, which reveals the frequency and distribution of selected properties of visual images, typical aspects of layout, attributed functions of the images, and their relation to the text. Humanization, domestication, and aesthetization are dominant discursive strategies of popularity-driven science journalism.

Significance of Colour Usage in Cognitive Mind Maps to Enhance Academic Achievement

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandini Bhoopal ◽  
Dr. Saroj Arya
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Corporate World ◽  
Published Evidence ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Mind Maps ◽  
Memory And Recall

Colour is a significant aspect of Cognitive Mind Maps which are visual representations of a subject to enhance recall. Entire lessons form visual images with key words. Scientific studies indicate a basis for relating colour and its effects to memory and recall. Colour plays a pivotal role in successful encoding, storage and retrieval of information.  Extensively used in the corporate world, research studies involving Mind Maps using colours, in U.K. and Australian schools claim successful results. There is little documented/published evidence of the same at high school levels in India. Sound educational systems but changed lifestyles have joint families-now nuclear, with high school ‘latch key’ children succumbing to dangerous distractions like TVs and computerized gadgets. School children not supervised closely may not perform to their intrinsic potential. Dependence on guides/question banks cause students to memorize answers without understanding lesson concepts. Research on Mind Maps with colour, as a teaching/self study aid, will find potential for application in NCERT/SCERT textbooks.

scholarly journals Personal style bloggers: the most popular visual composition principles and themes on instagram

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Ramos-Serrano ◽  
Ángeles Martínez-García
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Visual Pattern ◽  
Personal Style ◽  
Social Networking Services ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Visual Composition ◽  
Full Body

Instagram is one of the main social networking services personal style bloggers choose for interacting with followers. The goal of the present study is to detect the most common principles of visual composition and themes used by the world’s ten most influential bloggers. To achieve this goal we have employed a content analysis, using a sample of 503 Instagram images. The results indicate that the bloggers’ visual pattern of choice on Instagram corresponds to a wide shot with a full body view of the blogger against a significant background. The shot is taken at eye level angle and the predominant visual elements —the blogger and/or the product— are located in the centre of the photograph.

scholarly journals Recommended: Science Journalism, Science Princesses, and Wine

Eos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Space Science ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Science Stories

What Earth and space science stories are we recommending this week?

scholarly journals Lighten the Load: Scaffolding Visual Literacy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. es1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika G. Offerdahl ◽  
Jessie B. Arneson ◽  
Nicholas Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Visual Literacy ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Visual Elements

The development of scientific visual literacy has been identified as critical to the training of tomorrow’s scientists and citizens alike. Within the context of the molecular life sciences in particular, visual representations frequently incorporate various components, such as discipline-specific graphical and diagrammatic features, varied levels of abstraction, and spatial arrangements of visual elements to convey information. Visual literacy is achieved when an individual understands the various ways in which a discipline uses these components to represent a particular way of knowing. Owing to the complex nature of visual representations, the activities through which visual literacy is developed have high cognitive load. Cognitive load can be reduced by first helping students to become fluent with the discrete components of visual representations before asking them to simultaneously integrate these components to extract the intended meaning of a representation. We present a taxonomy for characterizing one component of visual representations—the level of abstraction—as a first step in understanding the opportunities afforded students to develop fluency. Further, we demonstrate how our taxonomy can be used to analyze course assessments and spur discussions regarding the extent to which the development of visual literacy skills is supported by instruction within an undergraduate biochemistry curriculum.

Visualising Interactions on Mobile Multimodal Sys

2010 ◽  
pp. 430-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Deray ◽  
Simeon Simoff
Keyword(s):  
Visual Representations ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Set Design ◽  
Interaction Data ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Additional Requirement ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Multimodal Systems ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
High Level

The purpose of this chapter is to set design guidelines on visual representations of interactions for mobile multimodal systems. The chapter looks at the features of interaction as process and how these features are exposed in the data. It presents a three layer framework for designing visual representations for mobile multimodal systems and a method that implements it. The method is based on an operationalisation of the source-target mapping from the contemporary theory of metaphors. Resultant design guidelines are grouped into (i) a set of high-level design requirements for visual representations of interactions on mobile multimodal systems; and (ii) a set of specific design requirements for the visual elements and displays for representing interactions on mobile multimodal systems. The second set then is considered subject to an additional requirement – the preservation of the beauty of the representation across the relevant modalities. The chapter is focused on the modality of the output. Though the chapter considers interaction data from human to human interactions, presented framework and designed guidelines are applicable towards interaction in general.

scholarly journals Iconography of Interpreters in the Conquest of the Americas

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Icíar Alonso Araguás ◽  
Jesús Baigorri Jalón
Keyword(s):  
Visual Representations ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Cultural Mediation ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
As If

Abstract This paper focuses on the figure of the interpreter as it appears in the visual images illustrating chronicles and other texts from the period of the Conquest of the Americas by the Europeans. The fact that linguistic and cultural mediation was necessary for an understanding between the cultures is commonly absent from the records, as if direct communication had been possible between both sides-yet another fiction of the encounter. Based on the assumption that visual representations are valuable records to understand the perception of the role of interpreter in the past, we analyze six images of different cultural and ethnic authorship, painted between 1550 and 1619. The aim of the paper is to make a contribution to the task of building the history of interpreting, following a line of research which, as proposed in the conclusion, merits further exploration.

scholarly journals Framing and Sourcing of Science in Philippine Newspapers from 2017 to 2019

Plaridel ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Benedik Bunquin
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Print Media ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Science Journalism ◽  
Science Culture ◽  
Science Stories ◽  
Science News

Science journalism can be challenging in societies with an emerging science culture such as the Philippines. In addition, the demands of the interest-based and taste-driven field of journalism can clash with the rigorous and technical nature of science. Science reporters must balance readability, comprehensiveness, and urgency of science stories to maintain high news quality. This study examines the coverage of science by Philippine newspapers and investigates the link of framing and sourcing to science news quality. Content analysis was performed on 394 news articles published from 2017 to 2019 and article characteristics, framing, sourcing, and news quality were coded during data collection. Results show that science reports in mainstream print media were understandable, relatable, contextualized, and explained thoroughly. However, there is much to improve on framing and sourcing of science news by Philippine print journalists, especially since these variables have been found to be significantly correlated with news quality.

scholarly journals Expert interviews with science communicators: How perceptions of audience values influence science communication values and practices

F1000Research ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paige Brown ◽  
Rosanne Scholl
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Expert Interviews ◽  
Selection Interviews ◽  
Science Stories ◽  
Story Selection ◽  
Do So

Popular science communicators are a key link between scientists and publics, navigating the values of the scientific community and the perceived interests and values of readers. To do so, these professionals apply shared ideas about the role of science communication in society and about the factors that determine meaningful and newsworthy science stories. And yet we know little about the motivations and assumptions of audience values that underlie shared science communication values and criteria of story selection. Interviews with 14 popular science communicators writing in a variety of formats reveal that both their personal motivations and their perceptions of audience interests and values influence whether and how scientific research is translated into story.

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