The Dilemma of Group Membership in the Internet Age: Public Knowledge as Preferred Misinformation (original) (raw)

SCIENCE IN POST-TRUTH SOCIETY: NEW MEDIA AND SOCIAL PERCEPTION OF SCIENCE

The public has always had an ambivalent attitude towards science. Science has brought new knowledge and has made life easier, but the power of knowledge has always provoked doubts about ethics of scientific endeavours. Among other factors that might be attributed to contemporary postmodern society, various characteristics of media production lead to the communication errors and negative public attitudes towards science. However, the advent of the new media has exacerbated such issues within the relationship between science and the media, taking into account that non-selective information sources on the Internet destroy the role of "gate-keeping" residing in traditional mass media and journalists. Although at first sight such a process implies potential for information demokratization, it also entails possibilities of presenting completely false and unfounded opinions, especially those concerning science. In this paper, the authors show a detailed analysis of the socio-cultural changes and media production characteristics that cause misunderstandings, but they also indicate useful principles that could lead to the more successful communication and social understanding of science. The role of scientists as communicators of science is indispensable in this respect, but there is also a need to abandon the traditional and idealized concepts of science as an isolated and self-sufficient human endeavor.

Misunderstood misunderstanding: social identities and public uptake of science

Public Understanding of Science, 1992

This paper draws general insights into the public reception of scientific knowledge from a case study of Cumbrian sheep farmers' responses to scientific advice about the restrictions introduced after the Chernobyl radioactive fallout. The analysis identifies several substantive factors which influence the credibility of scientific communication. Starting from the now-accepted point that public uptake of science depends primarily upon the trust and credibility public groups are prepared to invest in scientific institutions and representatives, the paper observes that these are contingent upon the social relationships and identities which people feel to be affected by scientific knowledge, which never comes free of social interests or implications. The case study shows laypeople capable of extensive informal reflection upon their social relationships towards scientific experts, and on the epistemological status of their own `local' knowledge in relation to `outside' knowle...

Citizens Making Sense of Science Issues

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2017

Dramatic increases in media choice over the past few decades have had profound effects on virtually all processes of communication involving issues of public concern. For science issues in particular, exposure to information about a particular topic is typically driven by specific motivations, often in the highly fragmented world of online communication. Existing research on information seeking in a polarized media environment can guide thinking about how individuals make sense of contemporary science issues. However, the unique features of science topics, particularly those related to emerging science and technology fields, complicate simple applications of existing theories. Although a small number of existing studies attend to these issues, developing solid, evidence-based prescriptions for improving how individuals seek information and form opinions will require significant new research.

Socioeconomic Correlates of Anti-Science Attitudes in the US

Future Internet, 2021

Successful responses to societal challenges require sustained behavioral change. However, as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US showed, political partisanship and mistrust of science can reduce public willingness to adopt recommended behaviors such as wearing a mask or receiving a vaccination. To better understand this phenomenon, we explored attitudes toward science using social media posts (tweets) that were linked to counties in the US through their locations. The data allowed us to study how attitudes towards science relate to the socioeconomic characteristics of communities in places from which people tweet. Our analysis revealed three types of communities with distinct behaviors: those in large metro centers, smaller urban places, and rural areas. While partisanship and race are strongly associated with the share of anti-science users across all communities, income was negatively and positively associated with anti-science attitudes in suburban and rural areas, respe...