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With their increasing popularity, there is a need for more research clarifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of the comic format for education. The panelled comic format may be particularly effective for educating adults on the scientific aspects of processes (sequences of events, occurring over time, in a series of discrete steps). We tested change in performance in adults (n = 879) in correctly ordering the stages in four processes before and after being exposed to educational material about these processes. The material was presented in a random selection of one of seven experimentally manipulated formats based on characteristics of comic books. Overall, participant performance improved after seeing the educational material. There were significant differences in learning between the processes, suggesting that the benefits, or detriments, of the comic format may be subject-specific. Performance was significantly better when images were subdivided into panels, and worse when an explanatory agent (character) was included, though these differences in performance did not survive adjustment for multiple comparisons. This study presents some evidence that the panelled nature of the comic format supports learning about scientific processes in adults. Given results differed notably between the specific topics to be learned, there is substantial scope for further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this content analysis, we explored how students address instructor ideology in the university classroom through the social media platform Twitter. We employed Boolean search operators through Salesforce Marketing Cloud Radian6 software to gather tweets and identified English language tweets by how students referenced their instructor's ideology. Tweets originated in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), and Australia. Using qualitative coding procedures, we identified seven themes in the data that described how students wrote about instructor ideology on Twitter: "venting regarding instructor's ideology," "sharing classroom anecdote," "affirming instructor's beliefs/actions," "expressing grade concern," "articulating an opposing view," "reporting conflict," and "indicating confusion." Across categories, Twitter was employed primarily as a back-stage means to communicate expressive dissent regarding instructor ideology and also to demonstrate students' identity. We identified differences between categories based on the perceived ideology of the students' instructors as well as differences in the number of tweets per capita originating in each country.

A common perception exists in the media that university instructors are a liberal elite who use their positions to instill a biased perspective in their students. Exploring student attitudes in the United States and Australia, the present study examined how students' academic beliefs are related to their inferences of instructor ideological bias and the degree to which they identify as reacting to these inferences in the college classroom. Results of regression analysis using previously validated survey instruments revealed that students' academic entitlement and grade orientation (GO) predicted perceptions of instructor bias. In addition, students' GO predicted students' reactions to such inferred bias. Institutional differences, pedagogical implications, and areas for future research are discussed.

Science centres and other informal learning environments are increasingly becoming venues in which socioscientific issues are presented, sometimes with the aim of influencing attitudes and behaviour. This study investigated the effects of an HIV AIDS science theatre presentation on the behavioural intentions of 697 South African students, a population facing extreme HIV risk. Surveys measured 15 HIV-related intentions before and after the presentation. Significant changes occurred in 9 of 15 intentions including resisting peer-pressure, HIV learning, discussing HIV with family and sexual abstinence. Changes typically involved strengthening of already positive intentions. Regression modelling showed prior intention was the greatest single predictor of intention change, with poor prior intentions associated with greater change. Audience emotional responses of interest and enjoyment, prior knowledge and knowledge change regarding HIV risk, and self-reported learning also predicted intention change; higher scores were associated with greater change. These variables predicted more variation in intention change than prior intentions, suggesting emotional responses in particular, but also knowledge and learning, play an important role in influencing intentions. Demographic variables had no influence on intention change. These findings provide provisional evidence of the importance of the emotions of interest and enjoyment in informal science learning, especially where the aim is to motivate change. The study underscores the potential that science centres and other informal science learning providers have as advocates for positive societal change, even with difficult and contentious issues such as HIV AIDS.

Policy makers globally often claim to use evidence when making policy decisions, but few studies have documented and evaluated the sources of evidence they rely on. This poses challenges to researchers and decision makers alike, as they struggle to assess the impact of research on policy. This study analysed citations in Australian federal parliamentary committee reports to better understand the role that academic sources play in shaping policy. Results show that academic sources are rarely cited by federal parliamentary committees, and of those that are cited, most are academic inquiry submissions or oral evidence, with very few citations of peer‐reviewed research. This finding points towards a need for academics seeking policy impact to engage more pro‐actively with government inquiry submission processes. To incentivise this approach, we suggest that changes be made to the way that academic impact is measured within the university sector in order to avoid disincentivising researchers from making submissions to parliamentary inquiries. Our study draws on previous literature and develops a method to assess the use of academic evidence in federal parliamentary committee reports. Our results demonstrate that little peer‐reviewed evidence is cited, and that for researchers to 'impact' the committee process they need to engage directly with government through writing submissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's attitudes about Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC) risks are not only influenced by scientific data, such as the likelihood of harm, the consequences of failing to act and the cost and effectiveness of mitigation. Instead, when people receive information about controversial topics of decision-relevant science like ACC they often defer to their political attitudes. Recent research has shown that more numerate people can be more polarized about these topics despite their better ability to interpret the scientific data. In this study, we investigated whether the motivated numeracy effect originally found by Kahan, Peters, Dawson, and Slovic [2017. Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government. Behavioural Public Policy, 1(1)] on the controversial topic of gun control laws in the United States also applies to people when assessing ACC risks. This randomized controlled experiment (N = 504) of Australian adults extends the motivated reasoning thesis by finding evidence that highly numerate people who receive scientific data about ACC use motivated numeracy to rationalize their interpretations in line with their attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies critical lessons from the climate change experience to guide how communications and engagement on negative emissions can be conducted to encourage functional public and policy discourse. Negative emissions technologies present a significant opportunity for limiting climate change, and are likely to be necessary to keep warming below 2°C. While the concept of negative emissions is still in its infancy, there is evidence of nascent polarization, and a lack of nuance in discussion of individual technologies. We argue that if negative emissions technologies are to be implemented effectively and sustainably, an effective governance regime is needed; built on functional societal discourse and avoiding the ideological baggage of the broader climate change debate or the controversies concerning geoengineering. At its core, our argument is to avoid the ideological bundling of negative emissions; this can be pursued directly and via careful selection of communication frames and the use of non-partisan, trusted messengers. Whether these lessons are heeded may determine if negative emissions are governed proactively, or are distorted politically, misused and delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YouTube has become the second most popular web search engine (see Alexa.com) and the primary website for individuals and organisations to freely distribute video content. Popularity statistics indicate that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics–related content is of significant interest to YouTube audiences, yet analysis of the 391 most popular science, engineering and mathematics–themed channels reveals a conspicuous absence of female communicators, with the hosts of just 32 of these channels presenting as female. To help understand potential causes of this gap, analysis was conducted on popularity indicators and audience sentiments of 450 videos from 90 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics–related channels. Female hosted channels were found to accumulate more comments per view, and significantly higher proportions of appearance, hostile, critical/negative and sexist/sexual commentary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YouTube has become one of the largest websites on the Internet. Among its many genres, both professional and amateur science communicators compete for audience attention. This article provides the first overview of science communication on YouTube and examines content factors that affect the popularity of science communication videos on the site. A content analysis of 390 videos from 39 YouTube channels was conducted. Although professionally generated content is superior in number, user-generated content was significantly more popular. Furthermore, videos that had consistent science communicators were more popular than those without a regular communicator. This study represents an important first step to understand content factors, which increases the channel and video popularity of science communication on YouTube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'audience' is central to research and practice in science communication. When asked by a scientist for help communicating their work, who among us has not responded with the time honoured question 'who is your audience?' Yet what we mean when we talk about audience is not always clear: implied and ambiguous, rather than explicit and precise. This article explores this ambiguity, drawing on a systematic review of 1360 science communication research articles and a survey of 45 science communication educators. We report 10 different conceptualisations, in three groups. Being conceptualisations include 'Demographic', 'Knowledge', 'Values' and 'Embodied'; Doing conceptualisations include 'Interaction' and 'Dynamic'. In Qualifiers , we found 'Diverse', 'Potential', 'Plural' and 'General' conceptualisations. These data allow tracking of how we have conceptualised audience over time, an understanding of the groups systematically under-serviced, and a pathway to a richer discussion of this key concept for our field., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.