Anthony Dudo

Reporting a Potential Pandemic A Risk-Related Assessment of Avian Influenza Coverage in U.S. Newspapers

While quality mediated information does not guarantee accurate public risk perceptions, it provides the public with the means to construct informed risk assessments. This study analyzed four major U.S. newspapers to assess the quality of coverage related to risks posed by avian flu. “Quality of coverage” was examined with a five-dimension conceptualization that included measures of risk magnitude, self-efficacy, risk comparisons, sensationalism, and thematic and episodic framing. Findings revealed that coverage was dominated by episodic frames, exhibited high sensationalism, and contained minimal information promoting self-efficacy. Conversely, coverage exhibited high quality in terms of risk magnitude and risk comparison information.

Science on Television in the 21st Century Recent Trends in Portrayals and Their Contributions to Public Attitudes Toward Science

Twenty-five years after George Gerbner and colleagues’ seminal report on television and science attitudes, there is a need to update the data on television’s portrayals of science and to revisit the cultivation question. We address this need by analyzing 21st-century television depictions of science and examining the relationships between exposure to television and attitudes toward science with an analysis of 2006 General Social Survey data. Content results show that scientists appear infrequently in prime-time dramatic programs, are typically White males, and are frequently cast in good or mixed roles rather than as evil scientists. Regarding the cultivation effect, we do not find a significant direct relationship between television viewing and negative attitudes toward science after relevant controls are taken into account. Additional results, however, indicate a displacement effect of television viewing on science attitudes and show significant interaction effects consistent with mainstreaming.

Food nanotechnology in the news. Coverage patterns and thematic emphases during the last decade.

For novel issues like food nanotechnology, media can play an important role in shaping the awareness and mental associations that underlie public opinion. Seeking to complement recent research exploring public opinion formation about food nanotechnology, this study tracks the evolution of U.S. newspaper coverage of food nanotechnology, identifying the descriptive and thematic traits that have characterized this coverage over time. We use a rigorous methodology to examine the levels of coverage, authorship patterns, and thematic emphases exhibited in the American journalistic narrative about this burgeoning application of nanoscience. Our findings indicate that U.S. newspaper coverage of food nanotechnology is relatively modest in terms of how often it has been covered, its thematic diversity, and the level of journalistic expertise from which it was produced. To our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically assess journalistic coverage of food nanotechnology.

The Emergence of Nano News: Tracking Thematic Trends and Changes in U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Nanotechnology

Mediated messages can influence awareness and nascent perceptions of novel or new issues. Nanotechnology is one such issue. This study explores descriptive and thematic characteristics of journalistic coverage of nanotechnology over a twenty-year span using computer-aided content analysis, finding an emphasis on research throughout the period with an increasing focus on both business and health aspects of nanotechnology. Later stories are more likely to address potential risks, while the regulatory dimensions, environmental implications, and uncertainty inherent in this emerging technology remain largely unaddressed.

Coverage of emerging technologies: A comparison between print and online media

This study explores differences in volume of coverage and thematic content between US print news and online media coverage for an emerging technology – nanotechnology. We found that while American print news media and Google News coverage of this emerging technology has peaked and started to decline, Google Blog Search coverage of nanotechnology is still growing. Additionally, our data show discrepancies in thematic content of online and print news coverage. Specifically, online users are more likely to encounter environmentally themed content relating to nanotechnology than are users of American print newspapers. Differences in the amount of coverage of nanotechnology in print news and online media as well as thematic content suggest that public discourse on related issues will be shaped, in part, by media consumers’ preferred information platform.

Toward a Model of Scientists' Public Communication Activity: The Case of Biomedical Researchers

This study aims to contribute to our empirical understanding of the factors and processes that lead scientists to engage in public communication. Using a national sample, this study identifies key factors that contribute to scientists’ public communication activity, including a scientist’s status, communication autonomy, use of print and online media, intrinsic rewards, communication training, perceived behavioral controls, normative beliefs, and perceived level of medialization. In addition to these findings, this study aims to extend our understanding of the popularization process by injecting theoretical rationale, accounting for indirect pathways of influence, and proposing a baseline model that can be refined over time.

Qualitative Interviews With Science Communication Trainers About Communication Objectives and Goals

Qualitative interviews with science communication trainers (n = 24) on the role of objectives and goals in training efforts suggest that trainers believe that scientists come to training with a range of long-term goals in mind. However, trainers appear to focus on teaching communication skills and are relatively unlikely to focus on identifying specific communication objectives as a means of achieving scientists’ goals. The communication objective that trainers consistently report emphasizing is knowledge building. Other potential objectives such as fostering excitement, building trust, and reframing issues were rarely raised. Research aimed at helping trainers foster strategic communication capacity is proposed.

Portrayals of Technoscience in Video Games: A Potential Avenue for Informal Science Learning

Given the proliferation of video games and their potential to contribute to informal science learning and perception formation, we provide an assessment of how commercial video games portray technoscience. Our examination was guided by theories commonly applied in studies of entertainment media’s contributions to public understanding of science. Results indicate that technoscience and its practitioners are common fixtures within video games and that their presence is often conspicuous and enthusiastic. Our findings challenge common assumptions about the treatment of science in media and compel research examining the role of informal gaming in cultivating future generations of scientists.

Emerging Agendas at the Intersection of Political and Science Communication The Case of Nanotechnology

The continued disconnects between science and the mainstream public have received renewed attention from policymakers and academics in recent years as scientific and technological innovations increasingly commingle science and politics. Nanotechnology is the most recent example in a long line of emerging technologies that have produced applications with tremendous ethical, legal, and social implications. It is therefore particularly surprising that our discipline has not played as much of a leadership role in closing potential communication gaps between science and the public as it should have. So where have we fallen short? And where are the most obvious contributions that communication theory and research can make to the unresolved questions surrounding communication about emerging technologies, in general, and nanotechnology, in particular? This chapter provides an overview of the state-of-the-art literature on communication about nanotechnology and highlights areas of convergence from conceptual models in political and science communication that help us build a better theoretical understanding of how science and technology get communicated in modern societies.

Two-Way Communication between Scientists and the Public: A View from Science Communication Trainers in North America.

ABSTRACT The current study explores the degree to which two-way communication is applied in science communication contexts in North America, based on the experiences of science communication trainers. Interviews with 24 science communication trainers suggest that scientists rarely focus on applying two-way communication tactics, such as listening to their audiences or tailoring messages based on their audiences’ needs. Also, although trainers generally recognize the value of two-way communication, it is seldom addressed in science communication trainings. The importance of two-way communication in fostering interactive dialogical communication between scientists and the public, and thus the importance of emphasizing it more during science communication training, is discussed.