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• Date of publication Oct 21, 2016 Category: Article

  A reexamination of the neurorealism effect: the role of context

  by Maria Popescu , R. Bruce Thompson , William Gayton , Vincent Markowski

  The phenomenon of lay readers of neuroscience being positively biased by the mere presence of brain images (fMRI), has been hotly debated, with recent failures to replicate the phenomenon, and suggestions that context is important. We experimentally investigated the potentially biasing effect of neuroimagery on participants' beliefs and explored an important facet of context within a neuroscience article: whether the article was supportive or critical of fMRI use in detecting states of mind. Results supported recent arguments that a “neurorealism” effect may in part be an artifact of experimental design; but we also report evidence that context may be critical.

  Volume 15 • Issue 06 • 2016

• Date of publication Sep 21, 2016 Category: Commentary

  Trust in technologies? Science after de-professionalization

  by Sascha Dickel

  Peter Weingart and Lars Guenther suggest that the public's trust in science has become endangered due to a new ecology of science communication. An implicit theoretical base of their argument is that the integrity of science as an institution depends on the integrity of science as a profession. My comment aims to reconstruct and question this specific institutional understanding of science. I argue that rust in technologies of knowledge production might be a potential equivalent to trust in professions.

  Volume 15 • Issue 05 • 2016

• Date of publication Jun 22, 2016 Category: Commentary

  Continuing professional development in the largest scientific laboratory in the world: perspectives and needs for a science communicator @ CERN

  by Paola Catapano

  A short outline of the evolution of communications at CERN since 1993 and the parallel growth of the need both for professional communications and, at the same time, the need for training in more and more complex competencies for the new profession.

  Volume 15 • Issue 04 • 2016

• Date of publication Jun 17, 2016 Category: Book Review

  The new commodities of the new media landscape

  by Andy Ridgway

  BOOK: Content is king; News media management in the digital age.
  Graham, G., Greenhill, A., Shaw, D.Andvargo, C., Eds (2015), London, U.K.: Bloomsbury

  The ‘traditional’ media industry ― newspapers and magazines and the like ― have had a difficult time lately thanks to increasing competition online. This book's chapters consider ways the traditional media can reinvent themselves to secure their future. Two key themes that emerge from the chapters are the importance of building communities and the increasing role of credibility in today's highly-competitive media landscape. While this book does not focus on the science media, many of the conclusions are relevant to it, in fact some are cause for comfort for those involved with science journalism.

  Volume 15 • Issue 04 • 2016

• Date of publication May 25, 2016 Category: Article

  Typologies of the popular science web video

  by Jesus Munoz Morcillo , Klemens Czurda , Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha

  This article provides a first statistical analysis of the typologies and characteristics of popular science web videos on YouTube. An analysis of 190 videos from 95 online video channels was conducted. Several factors such as narrative strategies, video editing techniques, and design tendencies with regard to cinematography, the number of shots, the kind of montage used, and even the use of sound design and special FX point to a notable professionalism among science communicators independent of institutional or personal commitments. This analysis represents an important step in understanding the essence of current popular science web videos and provides an evidence-based description of their distinctive features.

  Volume 15 • Issue 04 • 2016

• Date of publication Mar 17, 2016 Category: Commentary

  Hollywood heroes in high tech risk societies: modern fairy tales and emerging technologies

  by Anna Lydia Svalastog , Joachim Allgaier

  Science, research and emerging technologies often play a key role in many modern action movies. In this contribution we suggest to use genre analysis of folk narratives as an innovative and useful tool for understanding science and technology in action movies. In this contribution we outline our approach using illustrative examples and detail how understanding action movies as modern fairy tales can benefit the study of science, research and technology in popular culture.

  Volume 15 • Issue 02 • 2016

• Date of publication Mar 17, 2016 Category: Commentary

  Science and South Park, Reddit and Facebook, Leonardo da Vinci and the Vitruvian Man, and modern fairy tales about emerging technologies: science communication and popular culture

  by Joachim Allgaier

  The prevalent lack of research on the interrelations between science, research and popular culture led to the organization of the first International Conference on Science and Research in Popular Culture #POPSCI2015, which took place at Alpen-Adria-Universität in Klagenfurt, Austria, from 17--18 September 2015. The aim of the conference was to bring together not only science communication researchers with an interest in popular culture, but also other scholars, scientists and researchers, artists, media professionals and members from the general public. In this issue of JCOM we present four invited commentaries which are all based on presentations at the conference.

  The dangers of ‘Miss Information’: science and comedy in South Park

  by Edward Bankes

  "People seem to really enjoy the mix of humour and intelligence": science humour in online settings

  by Oliver Marsh

  Visual communication, popular science journals and the rhetoric of evidence

  by Dirk Hommrich and Guido Isekenmeier

  Hollywood heroes in high tech risk societies: modern fairy tales and emerging technologies

  by Anna Lydia Svalastog and Joachim Allgaier

  Volume 15 • Issue 02 • 2016

• Date of publication Mar 17, 2016 Category: Commentary

  Visual communication, popular science journals and the rhetoric of evidence

  by Dirk Hommrich , Guido Isekenmeier

  While the use of scientific visualisations (such as brain scans) in popular science communication has been extensively studied, we argue for the importance of popular images (as demonstrated in various talks at #POPSCI2015), including pictures of everyday scenes of social life or references to pictures widely circulating in popular cultural contexts. We suggest that these images can be characterised in terms of a rhetorical theory of argumentation as working towards the production of evidentiality on the one hand, and as aiming to link science to familiar visualities on the other; our example is da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man".

  Volume 15 • Issue 02 • 2016

• Date of publication Mar 17, 2016 Category: Commentary

  The dangers of ‘Miss Information’: science and comedy in South Park

  by Edward Bankes

  Interest in the possible role for comedy as a medium for communicating and engaging the public in science is growing. However, current research has so far been restricted to exploring whether the content of scientific knowledge is accurate and precise within comedy, and whether the public might be said to understand science better for having watched it. In this commentary, I suggest that this approach neglects the diversity with which scientific ideas and images are used in comedy, particularly when comedy is written without the explicit goal of communicating science. I present my current research on the American animated comedy South Park, which suggests a different story: science serves to expose the hypocrisy and self-interest that governs the town. I suggest that examples such as South Park might benefit the analysis of comedy and science, by seeking to explain the very presence of science in comedy and in doing so, explore the values attributed to science within popular culture.

  Volume 15 • Issue 02 • 2016

• Date of publication Mar 17, 2016 Category: Essay

  Towards a taxonomy for public communication of science activities

  by María del Carmen Sánchez-Mora

  As a result of the large number of media used and a variety of objectives pursued by the various Public Communication of Science (PCS) activities, their evaluation turns into a daunting task. Therefore, a general taxonomy for all the approaches used by PCS could be helpful in order to differentiate their effects and to measure their results. A general format is proposed for a fast and easy evaluation of PCS efforts and to share a common language with all science communicators, who need to easily compare the results of this growing activity.

  Volume 15 • Issue 02 • 2016