Recent technological developments have created novel opportunities for analyzing and identifying patterns in large volumes of digital content. However, many content analysis tools require researchers ...to choose between the validity of human-based coding and the ability to analyze large volumes of content through computer-based techniques. This study argues for the use of supervised content analysis tools that capitalize on the strengths of human- and computer-based coding for assessing opinion expression. We begin by outlining the key methodological issues surrounding content analysis as performed by human coders and existing computational algorithms. After reviewing the most popular analytic approaches, we introduce an alternative, hybrid method that is aimed at improving reliability, validity, and efficiency when analyzing social media content. To demonstrate the usefulness of this method, we track nuclear energy- and nanotechnology-related opinion expression on Twitter surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi accident to examine the extent to which the volume and tone of tweets shift in directions consistent with the expected external influence of the event. Our analysis revealed substantial shifts in both the volume and tone of nuclear power-related tweets that were consistent with our expectations following the disaster event. Conversely, there was decidedly more stability in the volume and tone of tweets for our comparison issue. These analyses provide an empirical demonstration of how the presented hybrid method can analyze defined communication sentiment and topics from large-scale social media data sets. The implications for communication scholars are discussed.
The impact of knowledge on public attitudes toward scientific issues remains unclear, due in part to ill-defined differences in how research designs conceptualize knowledge. Using genetically ...modified foods as a framework, we explore the impacts of perceived familiarity and factual knowledge, and the moderating roles of media attention and a food-specific attitudinal variable (food consciousness), in shaping these relationships. Based on the differential effects on “negative attitudes” toward genetically modified foods, we provide further evidence that the measures of knowledge are separate concepts and argue against a one-dimensional view of scientific knowledge. We discuss implications for understanding the relationship between knowledge and science attitudes.
Science on Television in the 21st Century Dudo, Anthony; Brossard, Dominique; Shanahan, James ...
Communication research,
12/2011, Letnik:
38, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Twenty-five years after George Gerbner and colleagues’ seminal report on television and science attitudes, there is a need to update the data on television’s portrayals of science and to revisit the ...cultivation question. We address this need by analyzing 21st-century television depictions of science and examining the relationships between exposure to television and attitudes toward science with an analysis of 2006 General Social Survey data. Content results show that scientists appear infrequently in prime-time dramatic programs, are typically White males, and are frequently cast in good or mixed roles rather than as evil scientists. Regarding the cultivation effect, we do not find a significant direct relationship between television viewing and negative attitudes toward science after relevant controls are taken into account. Additional results, however, indicate a displacement effect of television viewing on science attitudes and show significant interaction effects consistent with mainstreaming.
Mediated messages can influence awareness and nascent perceptions of novel or new issues. Nanotechnology is one such issue. This study explores descriptive and thematic characteristics of ...journalistic coverage of nanotechnology over a twenty-year span using computer-aided content analysis, finding an emphasis on research throughout the period with an increasing focus on both business and health aspects of nanotechnology. Later stories are more likely to address potential risks, while the regulatory dimensions, environmental implications, and uncertainty inherent in this emerging technology remain largely unaddressed.
Gene editing is an inherently wicked problem with no single right answer and no group uniquely positioned to decide this answer. We discuss the intricacies of the debates surrounding both plant and ...human applications of gene editing. Specifically, we demonstrate how one technology has developed into two separate context-driven debates within the scientific community with seemingly contradictory perspectives of ideal outcomes. Resolving these debates will require a culture of civic science that focuses on early and ongoing engagement with different publics that is not just done on science's terms. We provide recommendations for how both bench and social scientists should approach these issues moving forward. We also give a brief review of the research and commentaries included in this special issue of Environmental Communication on gene editing.
The Trust Fallacy Krause, Nicole; Scheufele, Dietram; Freiling, Isabelle ...
American scientist,
07/2021, Letnik:
109, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Blaming a phenomenon like vaccine hesitancy on an uninformed public that lacks trust offers an easy and convenient culprit for a complex problem, without exploring deeper issues such as where public ...messengers have fallen short in communicating about COVID-19 risks, the importance of physical distancing or masks, and the value of vaccines. These trust fallacy narratives pose dangers of their own. Intuiting pathologies and remedies for public behavior can lead to misalloeated resources and misdirected policies. Trust fallacy narratives can also politicize science in ways that inhibit efforts to preserve the very trust that scientists and other authority figures hope to maintain. Here, Krause discusses the scientists' search for public pathologies.
Research on framing is characterized by theoretical and empirical vagueness. This is due, in part, to the lack of a commonly shared theoretical model underlying framing research. Conceptual problems ...translate into operational problems, limiting the comparability of instruments and results. In this paper I systematize the fragmented approaches to framing in political communication and integrate them into a comprehensive model. I classify previous approaches to framing research along two dimensions: the type of frame examined (media frames vs. audience frames) and the way frames are operationalized (independent variable or dependent variable). I develop a process model of framing, identifying four key processes that should be addressed in future research: frame building, frame setting, individual‐level processes of framing, and a feedback loop from audiences to journalists.
Research on public attitudes toward controversial science seem to be divided between a camp that relies on a ‘scientific literacy model’, which states that increase in public knowledge of science is ...related to increase in public support, and a camp contending that the ‘miserly’ public will rely on heuristic cues such as value predispositions to form opinions about scientific controversies. In the present study, we argue along the lines of the heuristic–systematic model of information processing that the influences of value predispositions and knowledge on attitude formation can be complementary processes that will supplement cues provided by the media. Using data from a national three-wave panel survey conducted between 2002 and 2005, we examine the influence of value predispositions, news media use, and scientific knowledge on attitudes toward a controversial scientific issue: human embryonic stem cell research in the USA. Public attitudes toward stem cell research were shaped by value predispositions and to a lesser extent, cues from the news media. Scientific knowledge played a minor role in influencing attitude toward stem cell research. Religiosity, ideology, and deference to scientific authority moderated the effect that scientific knowledge had on support for stem cell research, with knowledge having a weaker effect on attitudes for the conservatives, and those individuals high on religious beliefs and low on deference to scientific authority.
Social media have given rise to new opportunities for science organizations to communicate with the public. Building on theories of science communication and public relations, this study examined ...scientific institutions’ use of Twitter for one-way and two-way communication in connection with science festivals over the period 2012 to 2015, using NanoDays as a case study. It identified three communicative functions of tweets by organizations—information, participation, and community—with most tweets being informational and containing hyperlinks. Nevertheless, longitudinal analyses indicated that organizations have increasingly incorporated community-building practices such as hashtags. Findings help clarify how social media engender science communication paradigms.
Building Buzz Liang, Xuan; Su, Leona Yi-Fan; Yeo, Sara K. ...
Journalism & mass communication quarterly,
12/2014, Letnik:
91, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Public communication about science faces novel challenges, including the increasing complexity of research areas and the erosion of traditional journalistic infrastructures. Although scientists have ...traditionally been reluctant to engage in public communication at the expense of focusing on academic productivity, our survey of highly cited U.S. nano-scientists, paired with data on their social media use, shows that public communication, such as interactions with reporters and being mentioned on Twitter, can contribute to a scholar’s scientific impact. Most importantly, being mentioned on Twitter amplifies the effect of interactions with journalists and other non-scientists on the scholar’s scientific impact.
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