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Online Communication Beyond the Scientific Community Online communication beyond the scientific community Scientists' use of new media in Germany, Taiwan and the United States to address the public A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil) to the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the Freie Universität Berlin by Yin-Yueh Lo Berlin, 2015 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Peters Second examiner: Prof. Dr. Alexander Görke Date of the defense: 12 May 2016 Acknowledgements Foremost, I want to thank my two advisors. I owe special thanks to my first advi- sor and mentor, Prof. Hans Peter Peters. It has been an honor to work with him and to be his Ph.D. student. I appreciate all his contributions of time, ideas, and support by giving me a job in his project team in Jülich. I am also thankful for the excellent example he has been as researcher and professor. As to my second advisor, Prof. Alexander Görke, I thank him for his time and helpful comments to my dissertation and for his support in getting accepted as Ph.D. student at the Free University of Berlin. Thanks also to Prof. Sharon Dunwoody and Prof. Dominique Brossard of the Uni- versity of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. During several project meetings in Jülich I enjoyed discussions with them about scientists' use of the new online media which inspired me to launch this study. I have appreciated the contacts with my former colleagues at the Research Cen- ter Jülich. It was a pleasure to work with them. Special thanks go to Dr. Joachim Allgaier for his readiness to read and comment a draft of my dissertation, and Petra Degen for her technical support in implementing the online survey of this study. I thank them for their kindness, patience and steady readiness to help. Last not least, I would like to thank my family in Taiwan and my host family in Germany. My parents encouraged and supported me from the beginning of my Ph.D. work till the end. Finally, I would like to thank my German host family for their kindness and their hospitality, accepting me as a member of their family. Contents 1 Introduction and overview ............................................................................... 1 2 Changing media landscape ............................................................................... 9 2.1 The rise of the new media ................................................................................ 9 2.2 Science communication in the new media landscape .................................... 15 3 Changing science communication paradigms ................................................ 23 3.1 From "Public Understanding of Science" to "Public Engagement with Science and Technology" ........................................................................ 23 3.2 Strategic orientation of public science communication ................................. 29 3.3 Repercussions and medialization of science ................................................... 32 4 Scientists and the new online media .............................................................. 37 4.1 Scientists' use of the new media ..................................................................... 37 4.2 Effects of scientists' use of new media for public communication ................. 45 5 Science blogs ................................................................................................... 49 5.1 Science Bloggers .............................................................................................. 49 5.2 Contents and audiences of science blogs ....................................................... 51 5.3 Boundaries between science blogs and science journalism ........................... 55 6 Cross-cultural variations of communication ................................................... 59 6.1 Professionalization of journalism .................................................................... 59 6.2 General communication patterns and preferences ........................................ 63 6.3 Science in society ............................................................................................ 68 7 Research design and methods ........................................................................ 75 7.1 Detailed research questions ........................................................................... 75 7.2 Survey .............................................................................................................. 79 7.3 Questionnaire .................................................................................................. 80 7.4 Sampling .......................................................................................................... 93 7.5 Implementation of survey, response rate and realized sample ..................... 96 8 The new media and science communication ............................................... 101 8.1 Scientists' general views about public communication ................................ 101 8.2 Overview of scientists' public communication activities .............................. 102 8.3 Scientists' use of personal websites, blogs and social online networks ....... 111 9 Scientists' perceptions of blogging ............................................................... 123 9.1 Scientists' perceptions of disadvantages and advantages of blogging ......... 123 9.2 Perceptions of relevant social environment ................................................. 127 9.3 Comparison of blogging and non-blogging scientists concerning their motivations for blogging and their perception of the relevant social environment ......................................................................... 133 i 10 Blogging scientists and their interactions with their audiences ................... 139 10.1 Characteristics of blogging scientists ............................................................ 139 10.2 Frequency of blogging and expenditure of time ........................................... 140 10.3 Topics of blog posts and target audiences .................................................... 142 10.4 Feedback from audiences and reasons to comment on other peoples' posts ............................................................................................... 146 10.5 Repercussions of blogging on scientific work ............................................... 150 11 Differences in the affinity to communication models and degree of medialization between groups of scientists preferring different ways of communicating with the public ....................................................... 153 11.1 Scientists' preferences regarding ways of communicating with the public .............................................................................................. 153 11.2 Scientists' affinity to different communication models by communication preference ........................................................................... 155 11.3 Scientists' degree of medialization by communication preference .............. 159 11.4 Differences in the affinity to communication models and degree of medialization between blogging scientists and non-blogging scientists ...... 162 12 Cultural variations ......................................................................................... 165 12.1 Significance and practice of blogging ............................................................ 165 12.2 Country differences in the "medialization" of science ................................. 167 12.3 Country differences in scientists' beliefs in communication models ............ 173 13 Discussion ..................................................................................................... 181 13.1 Methodological limitations and issues.......................................................... 181 13.2 Summary of empirical findings ..................................................................... 182 13.3 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 186 13.4 Final remarks – the place of blogs in science communication ...................... 195 References ........................................................................................................... 197 Appendix .............................................................................................................. 219 Appendix A: Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 219 Appendix B: Tables .................................................................................................. 241 Abstract (English)..................................................................................................... 263 Zusammenfassung (Deutsch) .................................................................................. 265 ii List of tables Table 2.1 Different platforms of user-generated content. .......................................... 12 Table 3.1 Two indices of medialization at the program level. ..................................... 36 Table 6.1 Characteristics of low-context vs. high-context communication. ................ 65 Table 6.2 Proportion of materialists vs. post-materialists in the population of Germany, USA and Taiwan. .......................................................................... 73 Table 7.1 Characteristics of the three countries. ......................................................... 76 Table 7.2 Overview of questionnaire modules and relevant topic areas. ................... 81 Table 7.3
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