This study explores how YouTube content creators integrate scientific evidence into their videos by analyzing citation patterns across disciplines. The role of other alternative metrics is also considered. We apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to compare the citation count of 12,005 research articles from Biotechnology, Psychology, Astrophysics, and Ecology published between 2014 and 2023, including citations sourced from YouTube videos. Our findings provide a characterization of two principal components in evidence citation employed by various science communication stakeholders. The first component enhances a paper's visibility by driving social attention, while the second focuses on its social influence and impact, determined by the paper's quality and scientific relevance.

Science podcasts have become an increasingly popular channel for science communication. Although podcasting has risen in popularity, little is known about why science podcasters choose to pursue this pathway for communication and how they set about achieving their goals for their podcast. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with 20 science podcasters in Australia, our results reveal that the podcasters are mainly driven by personal factors such as their interest in, enjoyment of, and curiosity about science and that while they employ various tactics to achieve their goals, they do not consciously consider these tactics to be a form of strategic science communication.

This research examines how public relations (PR) officers in Taiwanese scientific organizations view their science communication roles in a context with limited professional science journalism. Through a survey of 67 PR officers, we investigate their perceptions of public trust in their organization, their media relations and communication strategies. Results indicate that while PR officers recognize the importance of science communication, they perceive less media interest in scientific content compared to organizational news. Potentially, this leads to a self-reinforcing cycle where the perception of low media interests further reduces PR efforts in communicating research findings and potentially harms organizations’ perceived legitimacy at scientific research.

Stem cell research and therapies have been the topic of hype in the news media in Europe, America, Asia and the Pacific. Using a computational approach, we examine stem cell hype in the news media in the unique political, media and cultural context of Vietnam. The results indicate a pattern of the news media portraying this medical advancement as a source of national pride and achievement to tap into consumers' patriotism. The computational frame analysis method was shown to be efficient, helpful, and useful when researchers are confronted with urgent social, technological or public health matters. Findings from this study suggest that there is a need for national and international efforts to investigate news media content that misrepresents the current stage of stem cell treatment efficacy and risks.

This research investigates how members of the geoscience community in Portugal perceive and engage in science communication, identifying distinct patterns and practitioner profiles. Statistical analysis and a clustering algorithm were used to identify communication patterns based on practitioners' communication goals, target audiences, training, and self-efficacy. The results align with expected patterns but provide new empirical evidence of the relationship between communication goals and audience targeting, offering specific data for the geoscience community.

Extending previous research on how science fiction viewing and science news use predict attitudes toward a range of emerging technologies, this study draws on theories of genre-specific cultivation and narrative transportation to analyze how media consumption predicts attitudes toward two speculative technologies: mind uploading and terraforming. Results from a survey of the U.S. public (N = 1,015) show that science fiction viewing was positively related to support for mind uploading, while science fiction transportation was positively related to support for terraforming, belief that people are likely to develop mind uploading, and belief that people are likely to develop terraforming. Transportation also mediated relationships between science fiction viewing and attitudes. In addition, science news use was positively related to support for each technology and belief that people are likely to develop each technology. These findings highlight the potential role of media factors in predicting attitudes about hypothetical technologies.

Previous research has suggested that incorporating emotional language and exemplars within inoculation messages could enhance their effectiveness in inducing resistance to climate change misinformation. We conducted a between-subject experiment with four conditions (negative narrative inoculation, positive narrative inoculation, didactic inoculation, and misinformation only condition) to test the effectiveness of inoculation. We found that didactic inoculation increased perceived threat significantly more than both types of narrative inoculations. However, there were no significant differences across these three types of inoculation messages in conferring resistance to misinformation regarding counterarguing against misinformation, belief in misinformation, perceived credibility of misinformation, or intention to share misinformation.

Metaphors are prevalent in environmental science communication, because they describe complex topics in more familiar terms. Yet, little research has investigated whether metaphors contribute to comprehension in such communication. This experiment (N=510) disentangles the effects of different metaphor types on comprehension-related outcomes for three environmental concepts (greenhouse effect, carbon footprint, greenwashing). Results showed small but statistically significant effects of some metaphors on perceived text comprehensibility and perceived comprehension, but no effects on actual comprehension. No mediation effects were attested. Science communication could thus benefit from metaphor, but communicators should be careful not to overdo it, nor to overestimate its effectiveness.

As a recently emergent issue, public familiarity with orbital debris is likely low, and therefore especially susceptible to the influence of news media representations. To better understand media representations of orbital debris issues, a content analysis of all orbital debris news articles (N = 207) across four major U.S. media outlets (2011 – 2022) was conducted. It examines portrayals of risks associated with orbital debris, response measures, and terminology choices. Despite evidence that risks to satellite services are most consequential to everyday civilians, this risk was not a leading theme in any article. Instead, risks associated with falling debris to Earth was the most frequent leading theme across all news outlets. We also found differences across partisan outlets, including greater attention to space sustainability/safety risks and mitigation in a liberal outlet compared with a conservative outlet. Linguistically, the more colloquial “space junk” was more prominent than the more jargon-y “orbital debris.”

Visitors to public science events (PSEs) often report gains in scientific knowledge, improved attitudes toward science, and a greater awareness of science in everyday life (Jensen & Buckley, 2012; Adhikari et al., 2019; Boyette & Ramsey, 2019). However, these visitors disproportionately come from white, well-educated backgrounds (Bultitude, 2014; Kennedy et al., 2018; Adhikari et al., 2019; Nielsen et al., 2019). This paper utilizes a science capital framework to analyze the differential patterns of participation among PSE audiences. Quantitative analysis approaches are used to explore the kinds of science capital that visitors bring to PSEs, how the science capital of audiences differs between events, and how science capital might predict future participation in PSEs. Results reveal that PSE visitors typically have high pre-existing levels of science capital and that those with high levels of science capital are more likely to express interest in attending future PSEs. Directions for future research and practice are discussed.