Sharon Dunwoody

Communicating uncertainty: media coverage of new and controversial science.

Exploring the interactions that swirl around scientific uncertainty and its coverage by the mass media, this volume breaks new ground by looking at these issues from three different perspectives: that of communication scholars who have studied uncertainty in a number of ways; that of science journalists who have covered these issues; and that of scientists who have been actively involved in researching uncertain science and talking to reporters about it. In particular, Communicating Uncertainty examines how well the mass media convey to the public the complexities, ambiguities, and controversies that are part of scientific uncertainty. In addition to its new approach to scientific uncertainty and mass media interactions, this book distinguishes itself in the quality of work it assembles by some of the best known science communication scholars in the world. This volume continues the exploration of interactions between scientists and journalists that the three coeditors first documented in their highly successful volume, Scientists and Journalists: Reporting Science as News which was used for many years as a text in science journalism courses around the world.

User Control and Structural Isomorphism or Disorientation and Cognitive Load

User control theory predicts that providing freedom in learning increases learning compared to traditional instruction, implying that the Web is more effective for learning than print. Theorists have also argued that navigation through Web sites mimics the associative nature of human memory and information processing—structural isomorphism—suggesting Web superiority. However, studies indicate that hypermedia increases cognitive load and produces disorientation, implying that hypermedia increases cognitive load and produces disorientation, implying that the Web would be less effective for learning than would print. An experiment comparing learning in print versus several Web site designs demonstrated that learning from print as measured by recognition is better than learning from linear and nonlinear Web designs but no different from a design including advisement. No significant differences across media conditions were found using cued recall as the measure of learning. Additional findings suggest that cognitive load inhibits learning, whereas Web expertise facilitates it. Curiously, a learning motivation tended to reduce learning.

After the Flood Anger, Attribution, and the Seeking of Information

In an effort to understand what motivates people to attend to information about flood risks, this study applies the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model to explore how local residents responded to damaging river flooding in the Milwaukee area. The results indicate that anger at managing agencies was associated with the desire for information and active information seeking and processing, as well as with greater risk judgment of harm from future flooding, greater sense of personal efficacy, lower institutional trust, and causal attributions for flood losses as being due to poor government management.

An Investigation of Elaboration and Selective Scanning as Mediators of Learning From the Web Versus Print

Recent studies suggest that Web delivery may produce less learning than traditional print. Left unanswered are questions of the process through which differences are produced. Using 2 theories user control and structural isomorphism-we proposed 2 mediators of the influence of medium on learning. Path analysis of experimental data varying medium while holding content constant suggested that the Web increases learning through increased elaboration, but decreases learning through increased selective scanning compared to traditional print.

Linking the Heuristic-Systematic Model and Depth of Processing

This study draws a nexus between heuristic-systematic information processing and the theory of planned behavior through a model of risk information seeking and processing. The model proposes that the form of information processing individuals apply to risk information from the media and other sources affects beliefs, evaluations, and attitudes considered important to making judgments about performing risk-reducing behaviors. This study found that deeper, more systematic processing of risk information is positively related to evaluation strength, attitude strength, and the number of strongly held behavioral beliefs actively considered by respondents when thinking about environmental hazards. The relationships were consistent, appearing across two communities and three risks (two health risks and one ecological risk), and held up under multiple statistical controls.

Protection Motivation and Risk Communication

The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of protection motivation theory (PMT) in the context of mass media reports about a hazard. Content elements of a hazards severity, likelihood of occurring, and the effectiveness of preventive actions were systematically varied in a news story about a fabricated risk: exposure to fluorescent lighting lowering academic performance. Results of this experiment (N = 206) suggest that providing information about the severity of a hazards consequences produces greater information seeking. In addition, information about levels of risk, severity, and efficacy combined jointly to produce greater rates of willingness to take actions designed to avoid the hazard. Results are seen as providing general support for PMT and are discussed within the broader framework of information seeking and heuristic and systematic information processing.

Interactions with the Mass Media

A survey reveals that media contacts of scientists in top R&D countries are more frequent and smooth than was previously thought.

Mass media coverage of technological and environmental risks: a survey of research in the United States and Germany

Research on media communication of risks has become a reasonably well funded and popular domain for scholars around the world. Although one can find a great deal of collaboration among these scholars within countries, cross-cultural collaborations are far more rare. In this article, an American and a German scholar attempt to bring results from studies in both their countries to bear on some of the more popular questions being asked by risk communication researchers and practitioners. With a few exceptions, studies from the two countries demonstrate highly consonant results, suggesting great similarities between (1) the general social and technological cultures of these two developed countries, (2) the ways in which their scientific and journalistic cultures deal with the concept of risk, and (3) the ways in which risk communication researchers in these two countries conceptualize and operationalize this domain of inquiry. The review concentrates on studies that examine the construction of risk stories by journalists but offers a framework within which to examine story effects as well.

Scientists worry about some risks more than the public

A comparison between two recent national surveys among nanoscientists and the general public in the US shows that, in general, nanoscientists are more optimistic than the public about the potential benefits of nanotechnology. However, for some issues related to the environmental and long-term health impacts of nanotechnology, nanoscientists were significantly more concerned than the public.

Seeking and Processing Information about Impersonal Risk

Attempts to model risk response tend to focus on risks that pose a direct personal threat. This study examined the applicability of one risk response model to impersonal risks—risks that threaten something other than the self, in this case, the environment. This study utilized a section of the Griffin et al. risk-information seeking and processing model, which depicts relationships between informational subjective norms and information seeking and processing as being mediated by perceptions of information insufficiency. The results indicate that while those relationships do hold for impersonal risk, informational subjective norms (perceived social pressure to be informed) may play an even more complex role than initially anticipated. These norms may be a powerful predictor of seeking and processing when individuals face impersonal risks.