Science Communication 2000 Abstracts
Science Communication Interest Group
The Influence of Mass Media and Interpersonal Channels on White and Nonwhite Men’s and Women’s Health Behaviors • Cynthia Coleman-Sillars, Georgia State and Edward Slaughter, Rodale Press • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Self-monitoring, Issue Involvement and Appeal Selection in Health Communication: A Strategic Approach • Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Local Coverage of a Chemical Explosion: A Case Study in the Media’s Use of Right-to-Know Information • Sharon M. Friedman, Lehigh • This paper examines a case study of a major chemical explosion to describe how well reporters for a local newspaper and television station – who were not full-time science or environmental reporters – used federal right-to-know laws to report about the chemicals involved in the explosion. Besides outlining initial media responses to the explosion, it examines problems encountered by these reporters in developing the chemical aspects of the immediate and continuing coverage of the explosion.
The Visual Presentation of Expertise: Y2K Experts on Television • Joshua Greenberg, Cornell • The recent Year 2000 Computer Problem (Y2K) offers a relatively contained event within which we can examine the construction of expertise. This paper surveys the ways in which images of technical expertise were visually created on U.S. television. Drawing on an innovative method for computer-aided television archiving, the study treats an unprecedented range of programming, from “high culture” media like network television news to “low culture” media such as daytime talk shows.
Construction of Technology Crisis and Safety: News Media’s Framing the Y2K Issue • Ju Yong Ha, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • This study analyzed the Y2K coverage in the Washington Post over two-year period, paying particular attention to the framing of the Y2K computer problem. The Y2K problems was assumed to be the kind of issue which are not directly experienced by the public until it happens, news media’s construction of the Y2K could have an influence on the public’s awareness and perception on the problem. The results demonstrates that the number of the Y2K coverage increased over time and government was the major source of the information.
Accounting for the Complexity of Causal Explanations in the Wake of an Environmental Risk • LeeAnn Kahlor, Sharon Dunwoody Wisconsin-Madison and Robert J. Griffin, Marquette • In 1993, Milwaukee-area residents experienced an outbreak of cryptosporidium, a parasite, which infested the metropolitan drinking supply and sickened some 400,000 people. Using survey data gathered from 610 residents in the wake of that outbreak, this study looks at predictors of the complexity of people’s understanding of two causal components of the outbreak: l) how the parasite got into the water and 2) how it causes illness once in the human body.
Is Television Ever an Environmentally Friendly Medium?: A Review of the Research Literature • Patricia M. Kennedy, Syracuse • As a preliminary stage in an effort to reconcile perceived disagreement over television’s capacity to serve as an actor for environmental protection, this paper summarizes research conducted between 1972 and 1999 that specifically looks at television coverage of environmental subjects, influences on television’s environmental content, and the role of television in enhancing or inhibiting environmental knowledge and environmentally “friendly” (pro-environment) attitudes and behaviors.
Environmental Coverage in National Geographic Magazine 1960-1998 • Jan Knight, Ohio • In 1970, National Geographic announced that it would cover environmental pollution, a shift from its longstanding policy of avoiding controversy. A content analysis revealed that after the editorial shift, the magazine’s environmental coverage did increase, but it did not rank environmental issues highly, showed environmental beauty far more often than degradation, and covered endangered species and environmental issues that concerned U. S. energy resources far more than real-world events or public environmental activism.
Theory and Practice of Public Meetings • Katherine A. McComas, Cornell • Public meetings are among the most commonly used, frequently criticized, yet least understood methods of public participation in environmental management. Yet while systematic research is sparse, a vast amount of experiential knowledge exists, which can form the basis for a working theory on why some public meetings work, and why others do not. This paper offers a working theory of successful public meetings based on interviews with 35 state environmental and health department officials.
Consumers’ Use of Science Content and Site Address to evaluate Web Health Stories • Suzanne Pingeee, Robert Hawkins, Gi Woong Yun, Sung-Yeon and Ronald Serlin, Wisconsin-Madison • The Web is unregulated, and the potential for misinformation is unlimited. This experiment examined how web consumers use the information present in a URL (site address) and the content (quality of the science) when they read web science stories. Results were minimal for scaled items, but for subject-generated essays about the science stories, both site address and good or bad science in a story affected responses to the web science stories.
Using Databases from Interactive Health Communication Applications for Formative Research on Program Development and Inductive Theory Building: A Case Study of the CHESS Program • Bret Shaw and Gi Woong, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper explains how to extract and utilize data from an interactive health communication (IHC) application designed for women with breast cancer. The paper also describes how to use inductive data analysis strategies to gain a better understanding of specific patient populations, inform subsequent development of IHC applications, and assist in building and refining existing communication and psychological theories. Specifically, health tracking data is presented and inferences are made about what variables appear to be most important to women coping with breast cancer.
Understanding Environmentalism And Information Effects In Water Conservation Behavior: A Comparison Of Three Communities Sharing A Watershed • Craig W. Trumbo and Garrett J. O’Keefe, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper describes a set of environmental attitudes, and their relationship to water conservation behavior. The analysis contrasts three distinct communities located in the Califomia-Nevada Truckee River watershed. The characteristics of such differences can provide important information for the execution of persuasive information campaigns on water conservation. Analysis is based on 733 telephone interviews. Results show specific conservation attitudes, social norms, and information seeking predicting intention to conserve to varying degrees in all three communities.
Whose Voices? Health Professionals and Consumers as Sources in Daily Newspaper Coverage of Health Issues • Kim Walsh-Childers, Jean Carver Chance, Carolyn Ringer Lepre and Leslie Mullen, Florida • A study of the types of sources included in a sample of 780 health-related daily newspaper stories showed that health professionals were significantly less likely to be included in stories focused on the health care system than in other health stories. More than 75 percent of health system stories included no health professionals as sources. Consumers had even less voice in these stories; only 18 percent of health system stories including even one consumer source.
Non-profit Healthcare Organizations’ Use of the World Wide Web to Relay Medical and Scientific Information • Richard D. Waters, Syracuse and Matthew J. Nee, Georgia • Through a content analysis of the World Wide Web sites of the nation’s top 129 non-profit healthcare organizations, this study explores how these organizations relay scientific and medical information to the public. The organizations mostly use the Web to relay basic information about the organization, including its mission, programs and services and contact information. A majority of the organizations also placed press releases, newsletters and recent media coverage of issues related to the organization on their Web sites.
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