Sexual health information practices are increasingly framed as individual responsibilities, yet they are enacted within unequal informational and institutional ecologies. Interpreting the findings through a sexual citizenship lens, this study examines where young adults in Italy obtain information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human papillomavirus (HPV), and how information-source profiles are associated with STI/HPV knowledge and prevention-related measures. We analyse a 2024 quota-based online survey of Italian residents aged 16-30 (N = 3105; post-stratification weighted), using latent class analysis of STI-related information sources and weighted multinomial logistic regression. Four profiles emerge: a Legacy-media profile, a Social media-centric profile, an Expert/institutional profile, and an Interpersonal/family profile. Profile membership is most consistently associated with gender, age, exposure to school-based STI/sexual health sessions, STI/HPV knowledge, condom-use frequency, and HPV-vaccination attitudes and uptake. Citizenship, religiosity, household income/resources, and municipality size do not robustly differentiate profiles in the adjusted model. Findings reframe STI/HPV information practices as relational and institutionally scaffolded, rather than as purely individual choices. Policy and practice implications include coordinated multi-channel communication and minimum provision standards for sexuality education, youth-friendly counselling, STI testing, and HPV-vaccination pathways.

This work aims at contributing to the debate around the social representations of ageing, here by considering the theory of “biomedicalisation of ageing”, for which getting older is transformed into a medical problem with specific health risks that can be treated thanks to the help of technoscientific innovations. A considerable body of literature has created and developed this theoretical perspective, mainly through conceptual contributions or with qualitative methods, but different from most research, our paper contains a comparative-quantitative analysis of two large datasets, consisting of all the articles regarding the older population published online on the Guardian (UK) and la Repubblica (Italy). These articles underwent a quantitative analysis based on topic modelling techniques to identify and analyse the relevant topics. In parallel, we developed some synthetic indices to support the analysis of how news about older people is “biomedicalised” in media coverage. First, our analyses show how, during the period under scrutiny (1985-2021), while older adults have been increasingly framed as subjects at risk, the technoscientific solutions typical of the biomedicalisation era (i.e., personalised medicine and devices for self-monitoring vital parameters as well as lifestyles) have become increasingly relevant in the media sphere. Second, the analysed data show how biomedicalisation processes are interwoven with the ongoing social, cultural and economic arrangements (e.g., reduction in welfare state spending and exacerbation of the ageing population). Finally, focusing on the 2020-2021 period, it is observable how during COVID-19 public attention to the health risks of older adults has further increased; at the same time, there has been a diminishing emphasis on technoscientific solutions within the public sphere.

This study examines public discourses on prenatal testing and newborn screening on Facebook among Italian and German users from 2013-2023. Using a computational content analysis technique - specifically Structural Topic Modelling - we identify distinct discursive healthscapes that illustrate how digital biocitizenship is articulated in the context of reproductive health issues. The analysis reveals both shared concerns and culturally specific engagements across the two contexts. Key similarities include framing reproductive health as individual responsibility and ambivalence toward biomedical authority. Notable differences emerge in the politicisation of healthcare debates, approaches to de-medicalization, and the role of popular culture in shaping perceptions. The Italian corpus emphasises policy advocacy and critiques of healthcare commodification, while the German data focuses more on affective solidarity and awareness campaigns. Both contexts reflect tensions between demands for expanded screening and resistance to over-medicalization. Digital biocitizenship manifests differently when driven by organised advocacy versus individualised engagement. Overall, the findings illustrate how social media discourses on prenatal and newborn screening reflect broader sociopolitical tensions, while highlighting divergent pathways through which individuals navigate biomedical uncertainties by blending expert and experiential knowledge. This study contributes to understanding how reproductive health issues are constructed and contested in digital public spheres.

This article addresses the issue of science to contribute to the ongoing theoretical-methodological debate in the Social Representations Theory (SRT). It investigates the idea that attitudes are integral to social representations (SRs) and proposes solutions for empirically examining this nested relationship, expanding the technique of free associations in SRT. It examines the SR of science, considering diverse patterns of relationship with it based on literacy, interest, trust, and attitude. The study, utilising a purpose-built questionnaire with a sample of Italians, reveals a somewhat stereotypical SR of science rooted in a traditional view. While predominantly positive, distinct positions emerge in relation to the different patterns of relationship with science. Four patterns emerge, aligning along the dimensions of acceptance (affective-oriented) and commitment (cognitive/behavioural-oriented) and contributing to constructing a multifaceted and nuanced SR of science. The study corroborates the idea that attitude is part of SRs, and methodological developments, particularly assessing associations’ valence, prove effective. The comparison between freely evoked and ranked associations reveals reordering dynamics influenced by patterns of relationships with science. These methodological proposals offer a comprehensive understanding of SRs, allowing for longitudinal reflections on their trajectories and co-construction mechanisms.

AbstractThis chapter describes the research context and justification for the book. It discusses the relevance of contemporary practices contesting scientific knowledge, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. It introduces the theoretical and methodological background adopted to understand how and under which conditions groups of people assign credibility and trust to knowledge claims located outside the established boundaries of science. In doing so, the chapter proposes an integrated perspective by intersecting the Social Worlds Framework with the major analytical standpoints developed by Actor-Network Theory in the field of science and technology studies. It then describes the content of the various chapters of the book and concludes with their relevance to understanding the ways individuals or groups of people question the legitimacy of science’s claim to define what nature and society are and how societies should be governed.

BackgroundSupportive Care is a person-centred approach encompassing non-pharmacological interventions targeted towards persons with dementia to contain the effects of their behavioural disorders, improving their quality of life.AimsTo investigate the effects of lockdown restrictions during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic on behavioural symptoms of patients involved in a Supportive Care programme in an Italian nursing home.MethodsAnalysis is based on Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores and related symptoms data collected before (October/November 2019) and after (July 2020) the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions on a non-random sample of 75 patients living in two units of the facility: 38 involved in a Supportive Care programme and 37 receiving standard care (Control). Group performances were compared over time according to univariate statistics and Latent Class Analysis (LCA).ResultsNPI scores and number of reported symptoms in NPI evaluations increased over time among Supportive Care patients with dementia and decreased in the Control group. Differences are statistically significant. LCA resulted in 3-classes and 5-classes specifications in the two time-occasions.DiscussionSupportive Care patients showed a worsening in behavioural and psychological symptoms after the first pandemic wave, as opposed to the elderly not involved in the programme. LCA showed that patients in the two groups differed according to the combinations of NPI symptoms.ConclusionsThe discontinuation of a Supportive Care programme due to COVID-19 restrictions had strong negative effects on nursing home persons with dementia involved in the programme: Supportive Care interventions are important in controlling the psycho-behavioural symptoms associated with dementia.

AbstractThis chapter establishes and underscores the salience and relevance of studying knowledge claims refused by scientific communities as a way to understand the changing relationship between science, technology and society, with its conflicts and ambivalence. It makes the case that studying refused knowledge requires social scientists to venture beyond the comfort zone of their ‘knowing niche’ to renew their analytical lenses and thus avoid simplistic representations and interpretive blind spots. This chapter thus critically scrutinises the implications arising from the permanence of a series of ready-made normative prejudices and interpretative blind spots regarding the current challenges to science as well as about refused knowledge. Finally, it also outlines a number of potential analytical insights that require further collective effort if they are to be better defined and translated into precise research agendas.

AbstractThis chapter analyses the process involved in enacting broad discursive substantive arenas in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. In so doing, the chapter highlights the role played by both human and non-human agents (such as the technologies mobilised to counteract the spread of SARS CoV-2 and the actors considered experts by refused knowledge communities’ [RKCs’] followers) in enacting counter narratives about the Covid-19 pandemic, so as to make sense of the global emergency according to a body of refused knowledge. Hence, the chapter illustrates how these counter narratives progressively empower RKCs to collaboratively act within a broad discursive arena, fostering public dissent against public health policies. Indeed, RKCs permeate public discourses about emerging societal issues in depth, also attracting the attention and concerns of both policymakers and media operators.

Technoscience has historically been endowed by modern societies with cultural authority, which has undergone significant questioning since the end of WWII. In this study, we consider technoscience communication in online newspapers to test whether its linguistic and communicative features differentiate it from other types of news, possibly reflecting greater cultural authority. Focusing on news in English versus Italian, we apply Multidimensional analysis to a comparable English-Italian online news corpus comparing technoscience-related articles with all remaining articles. Results indicate overall linguistic and communicative homogeneity between science and other domains. Nevertheless, small differences seem to suggest an effort to make technoscience accessible and engaging in English, whereas Italian technoscience-related news tends to be more formal and richer in specialised information.

The article aims to understand the process through which scientific experts gain and maintain remarkable media visibility. It has been analysed a corpus of 213,875 articles published by the eight most important Italian newspapers across the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. By exploring this process along the different phases of the management of the emergency in Italy, it was observed that some scientific experts achieve high media visibility-and sometimes notwithstanding their low academic reputation-thus becoming a sort of "media star". Scientific literature about the relationship between experts and media is considerable, nonetheless we found a lack of theoretical models able to analyse under which conditions experts are able to enter and to remain prominent in the media sphere. A Media Experts Evolutionary Model (MEEM) is proposed in order to analyze the main conditions under which experts can acquire visibility and how they can "survive" in media arena. We proceeded by analysing visibility of experts during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and considering both their individual credentials previously acquired and the media environment processes of selection; MEEM acts hence as a combination of these two levels. Regarding the credentials, we accounted for i) institutional role/position, ii) previous media visibility, and iii) matches between scientific credentials and media competence. In our analysis, we collected evidence that high visibility in newspapers can be seen as evolutionary in the sense that some profiles-i.e. a particular configuration of credentials-are more adapt to specific media environments.

Citizen Science is believed to contribute significantly to the democratisation of science, engaging non-scientists in scientific research. Participatory approaches to science communication share the same interest through public participation and public engagement. In the attempt to connect these two debates both theoretically and empirically, we provide an analysis of the communication tools and strategies used by 157 Citizen Science projects across the EU, UK, and Switzerland. Our analysis reports that the CS projects surveyed tend to interpret communication as a disseminating activity, rather than as a tool to promote appropriate communication-based encounters with both project participants and other potential target audiences.

This dataset includes metadata of the newspaper articles used for the paper "When scientific experts come to be media stars: an evolutionary model tested by analysing coronavirus media coverage across Italian newspapers". The dataset is in JSON format. The metadata includes: "uuid" (unique identifier we associated to an article), "URLs" (the URLs where the article was published), "sources" (newspaper and feed/section where the article was published), "datesPublished" (dates when the article was published/updated). License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)

For many years, dementia care has been dominated by the standard medical approach, in which dementia is treated mainly with drugs, such as anti-anxiety, antidepressant and anti-psychotic medications. With the aim of seeking effective treatments for patients with dementia, over the last years, several contributions have criticised the pervasive use of drugs for the management of behavioural and physiological symptoms related to dementia, proposing personalised interventions aimed at supporting patients and their relatives from diagnosis until death. With particular reference to long-term settings, in this work, we aim at understanding the organisational implications of three types of interventions (labelled supportive care interventions - SCIs) that have characterised this shift in dementia care: person-centred, palliative and multi-disciplinary care. Conducted by following the integrative review method, our review underlines how SCIs have controversial consequences on the quality of care, the care-givers' quality of life and cultural backgrounds. After an in-depth analysis of selected papers, we offer some considerations about the implications of SCIs for long-term care organisations and future research directions.

This study examined the social representation (SR) of nanotechnologies and its relationships with those of science and technology. It aimed to understand the role of pre-existing and neighbouring forms of shared knowledge in orienting the way laypeople autonomously develop ideas about an unfamiliar issue, and related implications for its perceived risks and public acceptance or rejection. The study involved 489 Italian participants, stratified according to gender, age and education level. They completed an ad-hoc questionnaire with multiple free association tasks to the word-stimuli nanotechnologies, science and technology, and close-ended questions to gauge 'familiarity' levels with nanotechnologies and 'engagement' in nanotechnologies through media. The results suggested the presence of a rather shared and organised SR of nanotechnologies whose content is cautiously enthusiastic. The biomedical domain seems to be the most easily accepted field of application for nanotechnologies, indicating a 'preferential channel' through which they could be more welcome and trusted. Concerning inter-representation relationships, comparisons among SRs identified a strong connection among these three objects, indicating the existence of a coherent representation system where the SR of nanotechnologies is nested in those of science and technology, which, in turn, are in a reciprocal relationship. Fine-grained comparisons allowed for grasping further insights. The results showed that the SR of nanotechnologies is the least enthusiastic, highlighting critical voices among laypeople, although peripherally. Specifically, it presents elements of perceived risks and rejection on one hand, and elements indicating a detached approach in which individuals struggle to detect potentialities and advantages on the other, contrary to what has been found for science and technology at large.

The vast amount of digital data available online, which include digitized traditional media, offers new opportunities for social science researchers. This is, for instance, the case of social processes where the temporal dimension is crucial and longitudinal data is necessary. This paper presents a system called TIPS, designed in order to support social science researchers in their investigations. We will present the main modules of the system and how it can support diverse research tasks on longitudinal data such as archives of digitized newspapers

"SARS-CoV-2 general corpus" includes Italian newspaper articles published in the timespan between January 1, 2020 and June 15, 2020, containing at least one of the following terms: [covid, corona virus, OR coronavirus]. Sources: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Sole – 24 Ore, La Stampa, Avvenire, Il Giornale, Il Mattino di Napoli, Il Messaggero.

Research at the intersection between Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) investigates the role of science in society and how it is publicly perceived. An increasing attention has been paid to coverage of Science and Technology (S&T) issues in newspapers. Because of the availability of a huge amount of digitized news contents, the variety of the issues and their dynamic nature, new opportunities are offered to carry out STS and PCST investigations. The main contribution of this paper is a methodology and a system called TIPS that was co-shaped by sociologists and computer scientists in order to monitor the coverage of S&T issues in the news and to study how they are represented. The methodology relies on machine learning, information retrieval and data analytics approaches which aim at supporting expert users, e.g. sociologists, in the investigation of their research hypotheses.