Analyzing Effective Predictors of Scientists' Continued Public Science Communication Media Engagement
Open Access
- Author:
- Robbins, Heather
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 14, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Denise Sevick Bortree, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Lee A Ahern, Committee Member
Stephanie Madden, Committee Member
Matthew Paul Mcallister, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- public communication
university faculty researchers
media
media engagement
science communication
theory of planned behavior
dialogic communication
two-way communication
public outreach
faculty promotion
professional benefits
media writing
science media writing
public relations
predictors of communication
tenure - Abstract:
- The way in which university faculty researchers communicate their work to the public has great importance on many levels. Even with this importance, science communication is not universally required and/or recognized as part of employment at institutions of higher education and is not consistently part of the faculty tenure process. This thesis looks to better understand how university faculty researchers’ attitudes and experiences with “science media writing” lead to future intended behaviors toward media writing. By analyzing survey data from university faculty researchers who are authors of not-for-profit news media website The Conversation, this thesis explores the impact of scientists’ participation in media outreach and identifies the attitudes and experiences of scientists who participate in science communication (via writing an article for The Conversation) that lead to intended behavior, specifically recommending the writing experience to a colleague. This thesis shows that two-way online engagement via responding to reader comments and social media as well as experiencing professional outcomes – such as increased scholarly article citations, being approached for academic collaborations and requests for interviews by news media – lead to greater media outreach intentions.