Public Understanding of Science最新文献

News media has long been recognised for its important role in shaping public discourse and socio-political action relating to climate change. This is particularly true of opinion journalism, which reflects elite voices. Within the climate change communications literature, an important shift marks a turn away from outright denial of the existence of climate change towards delaying narratives. In this paper, we use a longitudinal mixed-methods analysis to chart 'discourses of delay' in editorials relating not only directly to climate change but to the closely connected issue of energy transitions across seventeen UK daily and weekly newspapers over the period 2011-2021. Though we find both a trend away from outright denial of climate change and an identifiable increase in support for climate action even among right-leaning editorials over this period, we also show that narratives are characterised by multiple discourses of delay across both climate change and various energy narratives.

Can homeopathy cure all diseases? Depending on whom you ask, answers to this question might be very different. This research investigates what homeopathy users believe about (a) whether and how homeopathy should be used to treat serious conditions like cancer, and (b) science and the relevance of scientific evidence regarding homeopathy. Using latent profile analysis (N = 225), we identify subgroups of homeopathy users that differ in their normative beliefs about the use of homeopathy in serious conditions: supporters of standalone use of homeopathy in serious conditions (~9%), those who are open toward standalone use (~43%), supporters of supplementary use (~35%), and supporters of both supplementary use and nonuse in serious conditions (~13%). Subgroups that supported or were open toward the standalone use of homeopathy in serious conditions held the most negative attitudes toward science. These findings are relevant for interventions aiming to prevent the risks associated with homeopathy use.

The influence of social media platforms on content production has been widely discussed in journalism studies, yet there remains limited research on its specific impact on science communication. This Chinese case study explores how social media logic affects the practices of digital science communication within a leading start-up in the field. Using in-depth interviews and participant observation, the study examines how key components of social media logic-such as engagement metrics and the drive to avoid invisibility-shape content production. The findings reveal that these influences intertwine with other factors, including platform regulations, creating a complex environment for content creation. This research offers insights into the broader implications for science communication and highlights potential avenues for future inquiry.

While surveys on public understandings of science are common, little is known about how science and its processes are perceived and reported by journalists. However, knowledge about processual aspects of science is crucial when estimating the trustworthiness of experts and levels of evidence. Science journalists function not only as translators but also as critical observers of science, shaping the overall picture of science and ideally strengthening the public's judgment. To unfold the shape of such process-oriented science journalism, we investigate the understanding of science in the German science journalism community in the aftermath of COVID-19. We find an advanced understanding of scientific processes among participants of five focus group discussions and a preceding survey. The science journalists show a high level of general trust in scientific institutions and see informing and contextualizing as their main professional tasks. Some emphasis on quantitative studies and some reservations about politicized science and certain disciplines become visible.

Implementing artificial intelligence also requires examinations of public attitudes and perceptions. One approach is by examining media framing of artificial intelligence, including news coverage, which is a reflection of societal perceptions and a key influence over people's understanding. As such, this study examines the framing of communicative artificial intelligence in Singapore, looking at how the news media frame communicative artificial intelligence and characterize it as a social actor. Through a manual content analysis of 336 news articles from three major news websites in Singapore, this study found that the news media in Singapore tend to focus on the benefits and advances of communicative artificial intelligence and portray communicative artificial intelligence as a tool rather than social actor. However, when comparing news coverage of communicative artificial intelligence after the advent of ChatGPT, the news framed communicative artificial intelligence more in terms of risks, regulations, responsibilities, and conflict.

Public engagement in health technologies continuously expands thanks to increased recognition and financial support. Yet, the lack of a shared definition and standards enables practitioners to conduct initiatives in ways that prioritise their self-interests over the empowerment of citizens. Experts and policymakers generally design engagement initiatives following rigid protocols to fit their agenda, limiting the influence of citizens upstream. In reaction to this and as an attempt to disambiguate public engagement from an ethical perspective, we investigate its intrinsic value. Starting from the assumption that public engagement must primarily empower citizens and not those who already have enough power to make their voices heard, we argue that the more the engagement process puts citizens at the centre, the more the engagement practice becomes valuable regardless of the methods used. To make the citizen-centred approach a reality, we suggest ethical principles that practitioners could apply across the spectrum of engagement.

Generative artificial intelligence has sparked a widespread public discourse, oscillating between utopian and dystopian visions about a technologically determined near future. In this article, we employ the concept of AI imaginary to examine the diverse and contested visions of the supposed impact of generative artificial intelligence on society. Utilising Cave and Dihal's conceptual framework, we develop a quantitative methodology to map the utopian and dystopian narratives of generative artificial intelligence. Analysing newspapers from the United Kingdom, the United States, China and India, we uncover significant differences in media representations through content analysis and computational topic modelling. Findings reveal a dystopian perspective in the United Kingdom and the United States, focusing on challenges such as workforce displacement and misinformation, whereas in China and India, the narrative is more utopian, highlighting potential benefits for technological leadership, economic growth and social advancement. Our study provides methodological and conceptual tools for a comparative examination of the sociotechnical imaginaries of generative artificial intelligence.

A large survey of American adults explored the complex landscape of attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI). It explored the degree of concern regarding specific potential outcomes of the new advances in AI technology and correlates of these concerns. Key variables associated with the direction and intensity of concern include prior experience using a large language model such as Chat GPT, general trust in science, adherence to the precautionary principle versus support for unrestricted innovation, and demographic factors such as gender. By identifying these relationships, the paper offers insights into the American public's response to AI that can inform the development of policies aimed at either regulating or encouraging its advancement.

It is repeatedly observed that public engagement with science is more common among members of the public with a more privileged socio-economic profile; however little evidence on the mechanisms of this relationship exists. This article proposes one such mechanism in deference towards authority. Through Structural Equation Model on Eurobarometer 2021 data, I investigate if favoring expert guidance over public participation in decision-making on science-related issues mediates the relationship between people's socio-economic status and engagement with science. Results show that higher socio-economic status is associated with greater engagement but also with favor toward experts' deliberation. Preferring experts over public involvement in decision-making is also associated with more informative engagement and less general engagement. Nevertheless, this mediating role is rather weak. Moreover, the study examines how other perceptions of science relate to socio-economic status and engagement, emphasizing the broader social and structural factors that shape opportunities for participation.

The ethical dimensions of human-AI (artificial intelligence) interaction demand attention. As artificial intelligence assistants become more anthropomorphized, will the public interact with AI as humans morally? This study applied content analysis to data from an online question-and-answer platform in China (N = 287) to explore the public's judgments of gratitude toward artificial intelligence assistants. The findings revealed the majority supports expressing gratitude, while a significant minority disagrees, indicating diverse ethical judgments. By further analyzing people's reasoning, this study found that supporters attribute gratitude to moral autonomy driven by virtue ethics, moral responsibility for responsible AI, and the perceived source identity of anthropomorphized AI as human, aligning with the Computers-are-Social-Actors paradigm. In contrast, opponents doubt AI's moral agency, highlighting the perceived source of AI as machines, and they judge that treating it with human manners is useless and potentially dangerous. These insights enhance the understanding of the public's view of ethical considerations regarding AI assistants, contribute to gratitude research in the context of human-AI interaction, extend the moral dimension of the Computers-are-Social-Actors paradigm, and emphasize the importance of moral and responsible AI use. Suggestions for future research based on the exploratory findings are also discussed.