Public Online Engagement with Science Information [POESI]

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Monika Taddicken
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 453806355

In particular since the “Fridays for Future” movement and the Covid-19 crisis, scientific issues have been discussed in online environments both by experts and laypeople. What was once reserved for meetings of scientists has now been brought to all individuals through internet platforms and applications. Although research covering online and social media has flourished over the past 15 years, when it comes to scientific issues, a huge research gap needs to be acknowledged. Despite the relevance of science and science communication in modern societies, the potential benefits and threats of social media have both been mostly analysed in the context of politics and political communication. Only little is known about how laypeople engage in the online discourse on scientific issues. There is an urgent need for scientists to collaborate more systematically in understanding how citizens engage with science and how the way in which such scientific information is presented affects this engagement.This network aims to contribute to this research gap by bringing together different scholars working on the overarching research question: How does the changing media environment affect public engagement with science information?To systematize the research, we will consider the different ways in which online engagement occurs and differentiate between consuming, participating and generating behaviours. Moreover, we distinguish phases in the process of citizens’ engagement with science: a preexposure period, exposure itself, and postexposure time. In addition, we take the recursiveness of processes into account. The central aim of the planned network is to bring together senior and junior experts on online public engagement with science to contribute jointly to the research gap. The group will discuss and advance theoretical assumptions and models, plan bilateral empirical research and reflect on the adequacy of different methods. By inviting 15 experts from six different European countries, we seek to consolidate the online aspects of ‘science of science communication’ with a special focus on European research. Researchers from both communication science and psychology will cooperate to consider different perspectives and approaches. We will account for four different theoretical desiderata: 1) Role of new technologies and their affordances 2) Changes in the knowledge system 3) Bounded rationality and the need for trust 4) Recursiveness of processes In sum, the network aims to combine theoretical, methodological and empirical competence to foster fundamental research on non-expert online communication about science, by developing a comprehensive theoretical framework and evaluating the appropriateness of traditional and digital research methods.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Nicole Krämer