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• 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 Feb 16, 2016 Category: Article

  The extent of engagement, the means of invention: measuring debate about mirror neurons in the humanities and social sciences

  by David Gruber

  Mirror neurons (MN) — or neurons said to be able to "mirror" the sensed environment — have been widely popularized and referenced across many academic fields. Yet, MNs have also been the subject of considerable debate in the neurosciences. Using a criterion based sampling method and a citation analysis, this paper examines the extent of engagement with the neuroscience literature about MNs, looking specifically at the frequency of "MN debate sources" within articles published in the JSTOR and Communication and Mass Media (CMMC) databases. After reporting the results, the paper reviews characteristic examples in context and, ultimately, shows that MN debates remain largely absent from peer-reviewed articles published in JSTOR and CMMC. However, the paper suggests that this happens for good reason and that MNs retain the potential for inventive animations even though debates have gone largely unrecognized.

  Volume 15 • Issue 02 • 2016

• Date of publication Sep 29, 2015 Category: Editorial

  A question of (audience) reach

  by Emma Weitkamp

  Taking the International Science in Popular Culture conference as a starting point, this editorial considers audiences for cultural products, considering the size of audiences (from blockbuster films, to intimate science slams), their pre-existing (or lack of pre-existing) interest in the subject and what this might offer the field of science communication.

  Volume 14 • Issue 03 • 2015

• Date of publication Sep 29, 2015 Category: Commentary

  Evaluating impact and quality of experience in the 21st century: using technology to narrow the gap between science communication research and practice

  by Eric A. Jensen

  Access to high quality evaluation results is essential for science communicators to identify negative patterns of audience response and improve outcomes. However, there are many good reasons why robust evaluation linked is not routinely conducted and linked to science communication practice. This essay begins by identifying some of the common challenges that explain this gap between evaluation evidence and practice. Automating evaluation processes through new technologies is then explicated as one solution to these challenges, capable of yielding accurate real-time results that can directly feed into practice. Automating evaluation through smartphone and web apps tied to open source analysis tools can deliver on-going evaluation insights without the expense of regularly employing external consultants or hiring evaluation experts in-house. While such automation does not address all evaluation needs, it can save resources and equip science communicators with the information they need to continually enhance practice for the benefit of their audiences.

  Volume 14 • Issue 03 • 2015

• Date of publication Sep 29, 2015 Category: Essay

  RedPOP: 25 years of a Science Communication Network in Latin America

  by Luisa Massarani , Claudia Aguirre Rios , Constanza Pedersoli , Elaine Reynoso-Haynes , Luz Marina Lindegaard

  The Red de Popularización de la Ciencia y la Tecnología en América latina y el Caribe (RedPOP) (Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Popularization of Science and Technology) was created 25 years ago as an expression of a movement that started in the 1960s in favour of a scientific education. The purpose of this movement was to incorporate science into the general knowledge of the population by communicating science through different media, products and spaces such as museums and science centres. Since then, the movement has acquired considerable strength in Latin America and RedPOP has been a key factor to the development of this activity in the region, although several challenges still have to be addressed.

  Volume 14 • Issue 03 • 2015

• Date of publication Sep 29, 2015 Category: Conference Review

  Let’s talk in Medellín: XIV RedPOP Congress “Art, Technology and Science: New ways to know”

  by Martha Cambre

  RedPOP celebrates its 25th anniversary and the congress was a great occasion to commemorate it. More than 400 attendees from 23 countries around the world had the opportunity to talk about the relationship between art, science, education, public policy on science appropriation, science journalism, and new ways to reach the public audience. At the same time a Science Theater Festival was held. The Congress in numbers: 5 Magisterial Conferences, 245 simultaneous presentations, 8 Working
  Groups, 9 simultaneous Workshops, 22 poster and 6 theater plays. 10 countries from Latin America (90Conversation was essential in this congress and everything was prepared to motivate it. Participants had the opportunity to hear voices from Latin America an outside of it through the international keynote. The challenging issues that were raised in the plenary sessions as well as the opportunity to make heard their voices during the Working Groups and to be able to work in the  Workshops with the keynote speakers, made this a motivational meeting.

  Volume 14 • Issue 03 • 2015