Movements opposing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) remain one of the most impactful protest movements in recent times, successfully suppressing the widespread global acceptance of GMOs through strategically crafted anti-GMO rhetoric. Yet, inadequate research has focused on the arguments used by GMO-promoting advocates. In this media content analysis study, inspired by the Neo-Aristotelian Method of Rhetorical Criticism (NAMRC), we analyze news articles about GMO technologies gathered from the most-read news portals in Ghana. We identify the rhetorical strategies used by GMO-promoting institutions that are reported in media interactions when the legitimacy of these technologies is questioned. We found that pro-GMO rhetoric focuses on themes of problem-solving technology, defensive advocacy, hope for the future, and scientific evidence to persuade publics. In the media coverage we analyzed, pro-GMO advocates defended both the safety of the technology and the legitimacy of scientific research and agricultural innovation. To ensure that advocacy for genetically modified crops is both responsible and credible, advocates of GMO technologies must strike a balance between conveying enthusiasm for these technologies and exercising caution about their limitations.

Cinema has long been a powerful medium for exploring and communicating scientific ideas. From its early days, film has served as both a tool for scientific documentation and a means of engaging the public with scientific concepts. While mainstream films have popularised scientific issues, independent cinema, distinct from Hollywood's commercial focus, offers more innovative and critical portrayals of science. By examining short films from the 2023 Braga Science Film Fest, this study investigates how independent films represent science and scientists. The findings reveal that while these films often depict scientists as adult white men, they challenge traditional stereotypes by avoiding common scientific tropes, like the mad scientist, and instead portray a more diverse range of scientific endeavours and behaviours, contributing to a nuanced understanding of science in society.

Engaging with the ongoing debate regarding the portrayal of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sphere – particularly the alleged predominance of sci-fi imagery and humanoid robots – our study examines how six German print media visualize articles related to AI. A mixed-methods approach combines qualitative and quantitative visual content analysis, analyzing 818 images from articles published in 2019 and 2022/23. Our findings indicate that human figures, rather than robots, serve as dominant visual objects, and no pronounced gaps between textual and visual representations of AI were observed. Overall, German print media appear to present a differentiated perspective on AI, balancing opportunities and risks associated with this technology.

This paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI) imaginaries are negotiated by key stakeholders in the United States, China, and Germany, focusing on how public perceptions and discourses shape AI as a sociotechnical phenomenon. Drawing on the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries in public communication, the study explores how stakeholders from industry, government, academia, media and civil society actively co-construct and contest visions of the future of AI. The comparative analysis challenges the notion that national perceptions are monolithic, highlighting the complex and heterogeneous discursive processes surrounding AI. The paper utilises stakeholder interviews to analyse how different actors position themselves within these imaginaries. The analysis highlights overarching and sociopolitically diverse AI imaginaries as well as sectoral and stakeholder co-dependencies within and across the case study countries. It hence offers insights into the socio-political dynamics that influence AI’s evolving role in society, thus contributing to debates on science communication and the social construction of technology.

AI-generated avatars in science communication offer potential for conveying complex information. However, highly realistic avatars may evoke discomfort and diminish trust, a key factor in science communication. Drawing on existing research, we conducted an experiment (n = 491) examining how avatar realism and gender impact trustworthiness (expertise, integrity, and benevolence). Our findings show that higher realism enhances trustworthiness, contradicting the Uncanny Valley effect. Gender effects were dimension-specific, with male avatars rated higher in expertise. Familiarity with AI and institutional trust also shaped trust perceptions. These insights inform the design of AI avatars for effective science communication while maintaining public trust.

Most public audiences in Germany receive scientific information via a variety of (digital) media; in these contexts, media act as intermediaries of trust in science by providing information that present reasons for public audiences to place their trust in science. To describe this process, the study introduces the term “trust cues”. To identify such content-related trust cues, an explorative qualitative content analysis has been applied to German journalistic, populist, social, and other (non-journalistic) online media (“n” = 158). In total, “n” = 1,329 trust cues were coded. The findings emphasize the diversity of mediated trust, with trust cues being connected to dimensions of trust in science (established: expertise, integrity, benevolence; recently introduced: transparency, dialogue). Through this analysis, the study aims for a better understanding of mediated trust in science. Deriving this finding is crucial since public trust in science is important for individual and collective informed decision-making and crises management.

The announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN marked a groundbreaking achievement in Mode 1 'discovery science'. We combined analyses of CERN strategic documents and organisational structures with ethnographic observations of, and interviews with, communication professionals. Our findings show that promotion of this 'Mode 1' discovery, in combination with the potential for longer-term 'Mode 2' innovation, was a strategic priority for CERN, but highlighted operational challenges for coordination between scientists and journalists. We conclude that CERN communication professionals played an essential boundary spanning role, brokering solutions and maintaining relations across borders and between relevant constituencies.

We used netnographic analysis to outline a structure of the #SciArt community on Twitter/X finding a surprising interest in dinosaurs, even in the midst of a pandemic. Recently, SciArt, broadly, science-themed art, has gained attention among science communicators for its ability to engage a wide range of audiences in scientific findings. We gained insights into how paleoart passes between and among audiences and explored the phenomena of perennially popular dinosaur-themed works of SciArt in popular science communication. We discussed these effects and how they could be used to engage people with SciArt in science communication efforts.

In this article we explore normative professional expectations around science journalists in Saudi Arabia (KSA) and how news reporters do access, engage with, and use news sources. Against broader and more universal normative expectations, we found that journalists in that country used a low diversity of sources in science news reporting and depended on official and public relations sources. These findings point to a current lack of criticality in science media reporting in KSA and limited ability for media to hold science to account. In so doing, we offer explanations for the divergence and gaps.

Based on an understanding of science communication as `social conversation about science', in this paper we explore how technoscientific knowledge is communicated through housing activists' use of online media. We analyse collaborative housing groups in Vienna and find that their online communication practices are contextual and reflexive: technoscientific knowledges are always contextualised through the activists' political issues, while the activists constantly reflect on and negotiate their means and style of communication. The case both offers insights into the diverse ways and sites in which public sense-making about science takes place, and inspiration for other forms of science communication.