Filter by author: Matthew S. VanDyke

Science Communication for Scientists: Linking Strategy with Creativity, Practice, and Respect serves as a necessary, current resource for scientists seeking to communicate about their work more effectively. The book expertly meets the collective moment in which we find ourselves — socio-politically, based on practical norms and common institutional infrastructures and incentives, and based on the state of the science communication literature — to offer scientists operating in democratic societies a much-needed resource for communicating their science with various stakeholder groups.

Although many science communicators strive to inspire audiences, scant research has sought to understand how media may evoke inspiration. The present study was a three-condition (modality: text-only, audio-only, and audiovisual) between-subjects experiment examining how media content about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) motivated participants’ feeling moved, awe, curiosity, rumination, and their inspiration state. The findings revealed no statistical difference between using text or audio content, but that audiovisual content can hinder rumination if self-transcendent emotions are not induced. Findings revealed that content leading participants to feeling moved and experiencing awe should lead to reflective thought, and ultimately, feelings of inspiration.