This study investigates how specific narrative elements, termed narrative depth, influence perceived story quality, transportation, and topic interest in science communication. Using structural equation modelling and experimental group comparisons, we examined the relationships between vivid imagery, protagonist emotions and motivations, and narrative engagement. Results showed that while narrative depth did not significantly impact perceived story quality, transportation emerged as a key mediator between perceived quality and topic interest. Additionally, women and individuals with higher education reported greater transportation and topic interest. These findings provide important insights into factors that influence the potency of stories in the context of science communication.
Different commentators are often invited in the media in order to discuss medical and health-related advances, such as the deployment of new vaccines or prevention tests. How do the expertise and opinions of such intermediaries affect public trust towards them? Do these factors also influence the public beliefs and decisions regarding those medical advances? We presented to 1984 French participants new (fictitious) medical tools that have been recently made available and commented on by individuals of different degrees of expertise and having distinct opinions. The results indicate that both factors significantly influenced participants' trust in the commentator's message. The commentator's opinion also affected (although to a smaller extent) the public attitude towards the tool and their willingness to use it. Crucially, participants recognized that commentators' assertiveness in expressing their opinions might unduly bias their beliefs. The study highlights the importance of considering both para-verbal and contextual cues in health communication, advocating for strategies to mitigate (or better use) their influence on public trust, beliefs, and decision-making.
Science Communication for Scientists: Linking Strategy with Creativity, Practice, and Respect serves as a necessary, current resource for scientists seeking to communicate about their work more effectively. The book expertly meets the collective moment in which we find ourselves — socio-politically, based on practical norms and common institutional infrastructures and incentives, and based on the state of the science communication literature — to offer scientists operating in democratic societies a much-needed resource for communicating their science with various stakeholder groups.
Multimodality in science communication has increased with the rise of digital communication affordances. Digital platforms enable greater integration of modes — text, visuals, and sound — within single messages. We argue that multimodality is particularly crucial for contested scientific issues, where viral spread, emotional persuasiveness, and personalisation are significant. We review empirical evidence and propose future research directions, thereby contributing to science communication in contested environments by examining the role of multimodality.
This article reflects on #OneDOST4U, a unifying communication handle adopted by the Republic of the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology (DOST) across multiple media vehicles. The campaign sought to strengthen a single institutional identity while inviting participation and feedback from diverse audiences, such as researchers, educators, local governments, industry partners, and communities. Through focus group discussions with stakeholders from 11 agency projects, we explored how publics interpreted and engaged with the campaign. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we identified recurring themes of value-in-use, dialogic engagement, and communal identity. Findings illustrate how institutional branding tools operate as boundary objects: recognisable symbols that different groups interpret in context while contributing to a shared sense of meaning. For science communication practice, #OneDOST4Udemonstrates that unifying institutional campaigns are most effective when treated as participatory boundary objects—tools that allow diverse stakeholders to negotiate meaning, build trust, and co-create the public value of science.
The United States population reports significant hesitance to consume GMOs. This article examines whether visual food cues can change attitudes, induce attitude ambivalence, and alter intentions to avoid purchasing GMOs. In a between-subjects experiment that varied the imagery cue (positive vs. coactive vs. no cue) accompanying GMO information, participants were randomly assigned to view a news-style article about GMO foods. Overall, positive visual food cues decreased potential ambivalence, resulting in lower felt ambivalence and lower likelihood to avoid GMOs. However, skeptics and uncertain individuals were not significantly affected by visual food cues. Implications and future directions are discussed.
The PCST Symposium 2025, held in Tokyo from 11–13 November, marked the first PCST-related event hosted in Japan. The symposium explored the strategic development of science communication in Asia, focusing on education and training, as well as public engagement. Navigating challenges such as linguistic diversity, limited professional development, and underrepresentation in Western discourse, Asian science communicators are harnessing new platforms and networks to expand local engagement and international impact through culturally rooted narratives.
Brain images entice particular ways of looking that frame how brain health, human behavior, personhood, and cognition are understood. This article examines the brain images used to convey neuroscientific knowledge through digital media by examining the website of one of the world's leading tests for screening cognitive impairments. Based on Visual Discourse Analysis, this research found that the studied website prioritizes brain images to depict cognition by displaying MRI scans, drawings, and diverse futuristic and colorful digital representations. These images reinforce the idea that this cognitive test is a predominant instrument for understanding the brain and the cognitive domains. However, they also portray the brain as a simple and transparent entity while obscuring its sociomaterial dimensions. Finally, the article reflects on the rhetorical, epistemological and ontological consequences of intersecting science, marketing, and web design.
This paper explores gender representations in Australian print and online science news over a period of five years. Using a constructed year method, stories relating to any science, technology, engineering, mathematics or health and medicine related theme were collected and analysed to better understand who writes and speaks about these topics. In contrast to earlier studies, the findings show near gender parity of journalists and a higher proportion of women used as direct sources. However, men were still more frequently used as direct sources, even in disciplines dominated by women. Journalist gender does appear to relate to the source gender. This paper proposes actions that journalists, organisations and science communicators can take to increase the diversity of sources presented in science news, recognising that gender is only one small part of the picture and future explorations should adopt an intersectional lens.
