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Mar 17, 2016 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 15Issue 022016

Mar 17, 2016 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 15Issue 022016

Mar 17, 2016 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 15Issue 022016

Mar 04, 2016 Article

Media portrayal of non-invasive prenatal testing: a missing ethical dimension

by Kalina Kamenova , Vardit Ravitsky , Spencer McMullin , Timothy Caulfield

Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is an emerging technology for detecting chromosomal disorders in the fetus and mass media may have an impact on shaping the public understanding of its promise and challenges. We conducted a content analysis of 173 news reports to examine how NIPT was portrayed in English-language media sources between January 1 and December 31, 2013. Our analysis has shown that media emphasized the benefits and readiness of the technology, while overlooking uncertainty associated with its clinical use. Ethical concerns were rarely addressed in the news stories, which points to an important dimension missing in the media discourse.

Volume 15Issue 022016

Feb 24, 2016 Article

Understanding drivers, barriers and information sources for public participation in marine citizen science

by Vicki Martin , Les Christidis , David Lloyd , Gretta Pecl

Interviews were conducted with 110 marine users to elicit their salient beliefs about recording marine species in a citizen science project. The results showed that many interviewees believe participation would increase knowledge (either scientific, the community's, or their own). While almost half of the interviewees saw no negative outcomes, a small number expressed concerns about targeting of marine species by others, or restrictions on public access to marine sites. Most of the people surveyed (n = 106) emphasised the importance of well-designed technological interfaces to assist their data collection, without which they would be unlikely to engage in the project.

Volume 15Issue 022016

Feb 16, 2016 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 15Issue 022016

Jan 21, 2016 Article

Motivation and learning impact of Dutch flu-trackers

by Anne M. Land-Zandstra , Mara van Beusekom , Carl Koppeschaar , Jos van den Broek

Many citizen science projects deal with high attrition rates. The Dutch Great Influenza Survey is an exception to this rule. In the current study, we conducted an online questionnaire (N=1610) to investigate the motivation and learning impact of this loyal, active participant base. Results show that the desire to contribute to a larger (scientific) goal is the most important motivator for all types of participants and that availability of scientific information and data are important for learning. We suggest similar projects seek (social) media attention regularly, linking project findings to current events and including the importance of participants' contribution.

Volume 15Issue 012016Special Issue: Citizen Science, Part I, 2016 (PCST Stories / 1)

Jan 21, 2016 Article

"We're not going to be guinea pigs;" Citizen Science and Environmental Health in a Native American Community

by Elizabeth Hoover

Determined to learn the extent to which a local contaminated site was impacting community health, the Native American community of Akwesasne reached out to a research university, eventually partnering on the first large-scale environmental health community based participatory research project (CBPR). Based on interviews with scientists, community fieldworkers, and study participants, this article examines the ways in which collaborating on these studies was beneficial for all parties — especially in the context of citizen science goals of education and capacity building — as well as the challenges they faced, including communicating the limits of what scientific studies could accomplish for the community.

Volume 15Issue 012016Special Issue: Citizen Science, Part I, 2016 (PCST Stories / 1)

Jan 21, 2016 Editorial

Can we understand citizen science?

by Bruce V Lewenstein

Citizen science is one of the most dramatic developments in science communication in the last generation. But analyses of citizen science, of what it means for science and especially for science communication, have just begun to appear. Articles in this first of two special issues of JCOM address three intertwined concerns in this emerging field: The motivation of citizen science participants, the relationship of citizen science with education, and the implications of participation for creation of democratic engagement in science-linked issues. Ultimately these articles contribute to answering the core question: What does citizen science mean?

Volume 15Issue 012016Special Issue: Citizen Science, Part I, 2016 (PCST Stories / 1)

Jan 21, 2016 Article

Cell Spotting: educational and motivational outcomes of cell biology citizen science project in the classroom

by Cândida Silva , Antonio Jose Monteiro , Caroline Manahl , Eduardo Lostal , Teresa Schäfer , Nazareno Andrade , Francisco Brasileiro , Paulo Mota , Fermin Serrano Sanz , Jose Carrodeguas , Rui Brito

Success stories of citizen science projects widely demonstrate the value of this open science paradigm and encourage organizations to shift towards new ways of doing research. While benefits for researchers are clear, outcomes for individuals participating in these projects are not easy to assess. The wide spectrum of volunteers collaborating in citizen science projects greatly contributes to the difficulty in the evaluation of the projects' outcomes. Given the strong links between many citizen science projects and education, in this work we present an experience with hundreds of students (aged 15–18) of two different countries who participate in a project on cell biology research — Cell Spotting — as part of their regular classroom activities. Apart from introducing the project and resources involved, we aim to provide an overview of the benefits of integrating citizen science in the context of formal science education and of what teachers and students may obtain from it. In this case, besides helping students to consolidate and apply theoretical concepts included in the school curriculum, some other types of informal learning have also been observed such as the feeling of playing a key role, which contributed to an increase of students' motivation.

Volume 15Issue 012016Special Issue: Citizen Science, Part I, 2016 (PCST Stories / 1)

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