Sara K. Yeo

Coastal bacterioplankton community dynamics in response to a natural disturbance.

In order to characterize how disturbances to microbial communities are propagated over temporal and spatial scales in aquatic environments, the dynamics of bacterial assemblages throughout a subtropical coastal embayment were investigated via SSU rRNA gene analyses over an 8-month period, which encompassed a large storm event. During non-perturbed conditions, sampling sites clustered into three groups based on their microbial community composition: an offshore oceanic group, a freshwater group, and a distinct and persistent coastal group. Significant differences in measured environmental parameters or in the bacterial community due to the storm event were found only within the coastal cluster of sampling sites, and only at 5 of 12 locations; three of these sites showed a significant response in both environmental and bacterial community characteristics. These responses were most pronounced at sites close to the shoreline. During the storm event, otherwise common bacterioplankton community members such as marine Synechococcus sp. and members of the SAR11 clade of Alphaproteobacteria decreased in relative abundance in the affected coastal zone, whereas several lineages of Gammaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and members of the Roseobacter clade of Alphaproteobacteria increased. The complex spatial patterns in both environmental conditions and microbial community structure related to freshwater runoff and wind convection during the perturbation event leads us to conclude that spatial heterogeneity was an important factor influencing both the dynamics and the resistance of the bacterioplankton communities to disturbances throughout this complex subtropical coastal system. This heterogeneity may play a role in facilitating a rapid rebound of regions harboring distinctly coastal bacterioplankton communities to their pre-disturbed taxonomic composition.

Building Buzz: (Scientists) Communicating Science in New Media Environments

Public communication about science faces novel challenges, including the increasing complexity of research areas and the erosion of traditional journalistic infrastructures. Although scientists have traditionally been reluctant to engage in public communication at the expense of focusing on academic productivity, our survey of highly cited U.S. nano-scientists, paired with data on their social media use, shows that public communication, such as interactions with reporters and being mentioned on Twitter, can contribute to a scholar’s scientific impact. Most importantly, being mentioned on Twitter amplifies the effect of interactions with journalists and other non-scientists on the scholar’s scientific impact.

The lure of rationality: Why does the deficit model persist in science communication?

Science communication has been historically predicated on the knowledge deficit model. Yet, empirical research has shown that public communication of science is more complex than what the knowledge deficit model suggests. In this essay, we pose four lines of reasoning and present empirical data for why we believe the deficit model still persists in public communication of science. First, we posit that scientists’ training results in the belief that public audiences can and do process information in a rational manner. Second, the persistence of this model may be a product of current institutional structures. Many graduate education programs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields generally lack formal training in public communication. We offer empirical evidence that demonstrates that scientists who have less positive attitudes toward the social sciences are more likely to adhere to the knowledge deficit model of science communication. Third, we present empirical evidence of how scientists conceptualize “the public” and link this to attitudes toward the deficit model. We find that perceiving a knowledge deficit in the public is closely tied to scientists’ perceptions of the individuals who comprise the public. Finally, we argue that the knowledge deficit model is perpetuated because it can easily influence public policy for science issues. We propose some ways to uproot the deficit model and move toward more effective science communication efforts, which include training scientists in communication methods grounded in social science research and using approaches that engage community members around scientific issues.

Selecting Our Own Science How Communication Contexts and Individual Traits Shape Information Seeking

We use an experiment with a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population to examine how political partisans consume and process media reports about nanotechnology—a scientific issue that is unfamiliar to most Americans. We manipulate the extent to which participants receive ideological cues contextualizing a news article, and follow their subsequent information seeking about nanotechnology. Our results provide insights into patterns of media use and how media use differs among people with varying political ideologies. When cues clarifying the political stakes of nanotechnology are made available, individuals are willing to read information from countervailing sources. When such cues are lacking, however, individuals avoid incongruent information and opt for headlines from attitude-consistent sources. We explore variations in the circumstances under which ideological selectivity occurs and demonstrate that both confirmation bias and defensive avoidance are heightened under such conditions.

The case of #arseniclife: Blogs and Twitter in informal peer review.

Using the “#arseniclife” controversy as a case study, we examine the roles of blogs and Twitter in post-publication review. The controversy was initiated by a scientific article about bacteria able to substitute arsenic for phosphorus in its genetic material. We present the debate chronologically, using prominent online media to reconstruct the events. Using tweets that discussed the controversy, we conducted quantitative sentiment analysis to examine skeptical and non-skeptical tones on Twitter. Critiques of and studies refuting the arsenic life hypothesis were publicized on blogs before formal publication in traditional academic spaces and were shared on Twitter, influencing issue salience among a range of audiences. This case exemplifies the role of new media in informal post-publication peer review, which can complement traditional peer review processes. The implications drawn from this case study for future conduct and transparency of both formal and informal peer review are discussed.

Misperceptions in Polarized Politics: The Role of Knowledge, Religiosity, and Media

Many Americans hold distorted views of elected officials and, as our study shows, the blame is due partly to our ideological biases and partly to mass media. Analyzing a nationally representative online survey, we corroborate recent research that found that one in five Americans still believe president Barack Obama is a Muslim and that almost seven in ten mistakenly think Sarah Palin, and not Saturday Night Live ’s Tina Fey, was the first to say “I can see Russia from my house.” Although race, political ideology, and “born-again” or evangelical Christian status were the primary drivers of misperceptions about Obama’s faith, media use had a more crucial role in predicting the more widespread misperception about Palin. Misattribution of the Fey quote to Palin was greatest among heavy viewers of traditional news media and late-night TV comedy, which is suggestive of the “lamestream media” effect often espoused by prominent Republican figures.

Persuasive impact of loss and gain frames on intentions to exercise: A test of six moderators

ABSTRACT The current study situated loss/gain-framing research in the extended parallel process model and tested whether two message features (dose, efficacy appeals) and four individual difference variables (walking self-efficacy, grit, consideration of future consequences, health information overload (HIO)) moderated the impact of message framing on intentions to engage in physical activity. Adults (N = 341, Mage = 38.09, SD = 10.94) were randomly assigned to one of eight message conditions advocating exercise behavior. All four individual difference variables significantly moderated framing effects such that gain-framed messages were more effective for individuals with lower walking self-efficacy, grit, and consideration of future consequences and loss-framed messages were significantly more effective for individuals with higher walking self-efficacy, grit, consideration of future consequences, and for those with lower HIO.

Social and Geographic Contexts of Water Concerns in Utah

ABSTRACT Public concerns about water issues are key considerations in responding to changing hydrologic conditions. Literature is mixed on the social profiles associated with resource-related risks. Using data from a household survey, we compare concerns about water shortage, climate change impacts on water supply, poor water quality, and flooding. We assess the combined influence of social and locational factors on each concern and variations across three valleys in northern Utah. Generalized linear mixed modeling is used, given the ordinal nature of most variables. Water shortage was the greatest concern, and female, older, nonwhite, and recreationally active respondents were generally more concerned about water issues than their counterparts. Education, income, and religious identity presented more complicated relationships with water concerns, with significant interaction effects with valley geography. This study has implications for improving public involvement in risk management and engendering support for future water policy and planning strategies to address these risks.

News Selectivity and Beyond: Motivated Reasoning in a Changing Media Environment

Since at least the 1950s, scholars have noted that partisans both select and process information in a biased manner. The latter has often been examined under the conceptual umbrella of “motivated reasoning.” In the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in the topic, due in part to discussions of the issue in the popular press. In this essay, we review the existing motivated reasoning research. We focus our work on the proposed mechanisms behind motivated reasoning and the implications that the phenomenon carries on public attitudes. In addition, we outline the importance of the phenomenon in light of our changing media environment. We discuss how the new media environment has changed the way people consume media information and speculate on how this will affect motivated reasoning research moving forward. Finally, we discuss motivated reasoning in the context of a shifting paradigm for media effects models, a paradigm that places greater emphasis on the role of audiences in determining communication impacts. We hope that scientists, communication specialists, science writers, political elites, and scholars will benefit from this work by obtaining insight into the theory of motivated reasoning and how it infiltrates their own fields.

Is Facebook Making Us Dumber? Exploring Social Media Use as a Predictor of Political Knowledge:

With social networking site (SNS) use now ubiquitous in American culture, researchers have started paying attention to its effects in a variety of domains. This study explores the relationships between measures of Facebook use and political knowledge levels using a pair of representative samples of U.S. adults. We find that although the mere use of Facebook was unrelated to political knowledge scores, how Facebook users report engaging with the SNS was strongly associated with knowledge levels. Importantly, the increased use of Facebook for news consumption and news sharing was negatively related to political knowledge levels. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.