Science, Media & the Public Research Group

"[C]onfidence among suburbanites was ... hovering between 41 and 48 percent ... [C]onfidence among rural Americans has been consistently lower ... hovering between 26 and 37 percent since the 1990s—reaching a gap of 18 points in 2018."

New work by SCIMEP researchers Nicky Krause, Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele, Michael Xenos, and Keith Franke forthcoming in POQ:

https://academic.oup.com/poq/advance-article/doi/10.1093/poq/nfz041/5573092?guestAccessKey=f418caac-b174-4a3e-9a1d-83c06b2e744e

Old and new friends and colleagues are in town! We had to go to Graft Madison and the Memorial Union Terrace ...

Nice to see so many current and former SCIMEP members sharing their expertise at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine colloquium on Science Misinformation in the Public Sphere! Co-organized by Dietram Scheufele, with speakers Dominique Brossard, Michael Cacciatore, Michael Dahlstrom and Sara Yeo!

Check out this new paper in Public Understanding of Science by Kate Rose, Emily Howell, Leona Yi-Fan Su, Michael Xenos, Dominique Brossard, and Dietram A. Scheufele. The study examines the relationships between different measures of scientific knowledge and perceptions of genetically modified foods.

Find the paper here:

Distinguishing scientific knowledge: The impact of different measures of knowledge on genetically modified food attitudes The impact of knowledge on public attitudes toward scientific issues remains unclear, due in part to ill-defined differences in how research designs conceptuali...

Read this new article by Dietram A. Scheufele and Nicky Krause about misinformation and fake news. The paper discusses several areas for research "that will be particularly important for our future understanding of misinformation, specifically a systems approach to the problem of misinformation, the need for more systematic analyses of science communication in new media environments, and a (re)focusing on traditionally underserved audiences."

Find the paper here:

Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news Concerns about public misinformation in the United States—ranging from politics to science—are growing. Here, we provide an overview of how and why citizens become (and sometimes remain) misinformed about science. Our discussion focuses specifically on misinformation among individual citizens. H...

Check out this new paper that discusses the "Promises and perils of gene drives", written by a unique interdisciplinary team: Dominique Brossard and Christopher Wirz from the UW-Madison Life Sciences Communication, Pam Belluck from The New York Times, and Fred Gould from North Carolina State University. The paper follows a session from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium “The Science of Science Communication III”.

Find the article here: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/01/11/1805874115

And media coverage here: https://news.wisc.edu/study-post-normal-science-requires-unorthodox-communication-strategies/

Dominique Brossard was a guest editor for a new special issue of Risk Analysis, "Communicating About Zika". The issue covers research on various aspects of communication surrounding the recent Zika outbreak, as well as an introduction by the guest editors. The special issue includes an article by Christopher Wirz, Michael Xenos, Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele, Jennifer Chung, and Luisa Massarani that analyzes the conversation about the Zika virus on social media in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Find the special issue here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15396924/2018/38/12

Find the press release here: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/sfra-rar120718.php

Find the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/risa.13228

A new study analyzes social media discussions about the Zika virus in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Read more in the new paper published in "Risk Analysis" by Christopher Wirz, Michael Xenos, Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele, Jennifer Chung and Luisa Massarani

Find the paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/risa.13228

CfP: Check out this new call for papers for a special issue of Environmental Communication on gene editing, agriculture, and the environment. Dietram A. Scheufele and Dominique Brossard are serving as the guest editors for the special issue. Papers may be submitted until 15 March 2019.

Find the full CfP here:

Environmental Communication Submissions - Gene Editing - Campaign Announcing a new special issue on Gene Editing, Agriculture, Communication, and the Environment, from the journal Enviromental Communication.

Scimep faculty awarded NSF $450,000 grant to reduce polarization about new science. Congratulations to Dietram A. Scheufele, Dominique Brossard, and Michael Xenos. Read about their research here:

LSC faculty awarded NSF $450,000 grant to reduce polarization about new science Story by Madison Brunett. Madison is an undergraduate student majoring in LSC and the Department of Life Sciences Communication’s 2018-19 Lenore Landry Scholar. Imagine having the ability to rid th…

What impacts do consensus reports produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have on (social) media and public opinion? Research from UW-Madison Life Sciences Communication demonstrates how the release of a report on GE crops was followed reduced negativity on Twitter and increased ambivalence in public opinion.

Read more in a new paper by Emily Howell, Christopher Wirz, Dominique Brossard, Dietram A. Scheufele, Michael Xenos, and collaborators from the Annenberg Public Policy Center University of Pennsylvania.

Read the press release by UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences here: https://news.cals.wisc.edu/2018/10/02/national-academy-reports-seen-as-beacons-for-civil-public-discourse/

And the find the paper here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/national-academies-of-sciences-engineering-and-medicine-report-on-genetically-engineered-crops-influences-public-discourse/E68CB4DA0234E8D318F35D109AC183A8

National Academy reports seen as beacons for civil public discourse – CALS News National Academy reports seen as beacons for civil public discourse October 2, 2018 | By Terry Devitt, UW–Madison University Communications In an era of fake news and widespread disinformation campaigns aimed at confusing and polarizing public discourse in the United States, a new study provides a...

A new study published in "Environmental communication" by Kristin Runge, co-authored by UW-Madison Life Sciences Communication's Dominique Brossard and Michael Xenos, examines media audiences to create "distinct and robust segments of interest for researchers and practitioners in science communication".

You can find the abstract of the paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17524032.2018.1513854?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=renc20