Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TRESCA (Trustworthy, Reliable and Engaging Scientific Communication Approaches)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-01-01 al 2022-04-30
Post-truth, fake news and misinformation are Internet-age phenomena that raise suspicion of the credibility and reliability of (scientific) information. While scientists and science communicators are benefitting from new opportunities offered by digital media, they are also facing new challenges, such as conspiracy theories and science skepticism. Like science, news media have also been suffering from a decline of trust and they are currently one of the least trusted democratic institutions in Europe. At the same time news media and journalism remain crucial for translating and disseminating scientific information from researchers to the general public. And science remains one of the most important channels for creating knowledge and improving the quality of our lives. This raises some urgent questions: What drives public trust in science, and how can we improve it?
The TRESCA project consortium has taken on the challenge to study the current state of public trust in science communication and to contribute to rebuilding trust in science. The two concrete objectives are to (1) provide an in-depth understanding of how citizens perceive, understand and engage with scientific findings, and (2) to offer tools Post-truth, fake news and misinformation are Internet-age phenomena that raise suspicion of the credibility and reliability of (scientific) information. While scientists and science communicators are benefitting from new opportunities offered by digital media, they are also facing new challenges, such as conspiracy theories and science skepticism. Like science, news media have also been suffering from a decline of trust and they are currently one of the least trusted democratic institutions in Europe. At the same time news media and journalism remain crucial for translating and disseminating scientific information from researchers to the general public. And science remains one of the most important channels for creating knowledge and improving the quality of our lives. This raises some urgent questions: What drives public trust in science, and how can we improve it?
The TRESCA project consortium explored the current state of public trust in science communication and how to rebuild trust in science. TRESCA aimed to (1) provide an in-depth understanding of how citizens perceive, understand, and engage with scientific findings, and (2) offer tools for increasing the quality of communication practices of scientific researchers, journalists, and policy makers.
increasing the quality of communication practices of scientific researchers, journalists and policy makers.
The TRESCA project consortium has taken on the challenge to study the current state of public trust in science communication and to contribute to rebuilding trust in science. The two concrete objectives are to (1) provide an in-depth understanding of how citizens perceive, understand and engage with scientific findings, and (2) to offer tools Post-truth, fake news and misinformation are Internet-age phenomena that raise suspicion of the credibility and reliability of (scientific) information. While scientists and science communicators are benefitting from new opportunities offered by digital media, they are also facing new challenges, such as conspiracy theories and science skepticism. Like science, news media have also been suffering from a decline of trust and they are currently one of the least trusted democratic institutions in Europe. At the same time news media and journalism remain crucial for translating and disseminating scientific information from researchers to the general public. And science remains one of the most important channels for creating knowledge and improving the quality of our lives. This raises some urgent questions: What drives public trust in science, and how can we improve it?
The TRESCA project consortium explored the current state of public trust in science communication and how to rebuild trust in science. TRESCA aimed to (1) provide an in-depth understanding of how citizens perceive, understand, and engage with scientific findings, and (2) offer tools for increasing the quality of communication practices of scientific researchers, journalists, and policy makers.
increasing the quality of communication practices of scientific researchers, journalists and policy makers.
TRESCA started with an in-depth conceptual and theoretical exploration of how citizens perceive scientific findings. We investigated trending topics in media and social media to better understand which topics are most relevant to them.We also analysed current trends in sci-com related to policy by conducting interviews with policymakers at national (IT, AT, HU, NL) and European level. Here, we observed that digitalisation and open science are key in how policymakers consume sci-com.. Finally, we engaged with researchers to examine their engagement or disengagement with sci-com. Our survey results showed that researchers are generally willing to engage in science communication, but that they lack the time, training and structural incentives to do so effectively..
Via several empirical research efforts, we uncovered how citizens perceive and engage with sci-com. Focus groups (with 61 citizens in three countries:IT,AT,NL)were held, which triggered a debate about various aspects of communication perception and investigated how the public perceives and evaluates science communication. Key takeaways from this research reveal how people debate the legitimacy and credibility of science, the powerful role of emotions in people’s understanding of science, and the need for sharing the responsibility of communicating science between different stakeholders.
To evaluate effective sci-com an experimental survey design yielded 7120 individual responses from nationally diverse and representative samples (people aged 18-75, living in FR. DE, HU,IT,NL,PL and SP). This study/data demonstrates a need to take cultural differences and biases into account when communicating science. One important aspect is how sci-com can influence not only people’s beliefs, but also their actions and behavior. The majority of respondents were also able to understand by themselves that the story was true. Only Dutch respondents were on average more inclined to believe that the story was false; an effect that could have been produced by Dutch people’s high reliance and positive attitudes toward digital technologies.
The TRESCA project also created tools to improve sci-com practices. It did so by performing large scale video experiments in which elements and variations (e.g. aim, tone, production value) of science communication videos were analyzed on their effectiveness in creating trust. We also found that depending on pre-existing attitudes towards the topic, viewers perceived different communication styles differently. These results were considered in the production of the video.on science communication called: “We Lied to You …And We’ll Do it Again” that was released in December 2021 and has been viewed by nearly 10 million viewers to date, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFqn3uy238E. Due to the overwhelming success of the video Kurzgesagt is planning an entire video series on sci-com.
TRESCA also developed a Proof of Concept of a fact checking toolkit and methodology. called Ms.W. Ms.W aims to help users track online news and their authors, by evaluating the credibility and trustworthiness of information sources. Ms.W REST API has been designed and deployed following an open source and agile software development methodology to facilitate the future development of the widget as a cloud-based service and ensure its long-term exploitation by stakeholders.
The TRESCA project also developed and launched a free online training course: Science Communication: communicating trustworthy information in the digital world, see: https://www.coursera.org/learn/communicating-trustworthy-information-in-the-digital-world. Via seven modules with various learning resources, participants of the MOOC explore the influence of digitalization on sci-com. The course was created to help journalists, scientists, policy makers, and the wider public improve their understanding of current sci-com practices.
Via several empirical research efforts, we uncovered how citizens perceive and engage with sci-com. Focus groups (with 61 citizens in three countries:IT,AT,NL)were held, which triggered a debate about various aspects of communication perception and investigated how the public perceives and evaluates science communication. Key takeaways from this research reveal how people debate the legitimacy and credibility of science, the powerful role of emotions in people’s understanding of science, and the need for sharing the responsibility of communicating science between different stakeholders.
To evaluate effective sci-com an experimental survey design yielded 7120 individual responses from nationally diverse and representative samples (people aged 18-75, living in FR. DE, HU,IT,NL,PL and SP). This study/data demonstrates a need to take cultural differences and biases into account when communicating science. One important aspect is how sci-com can influence not only people’s beliefs, but also their actions and behavior. The majority of respondents were also able to understand by themselves that the story was true. Only Dutch respondents were on average more inclined to believe that the story was false; an effect that could have been produced by Dutch people’s high reliance and positive attitudes toward digital technologies.
The TRESCA project also created tools to improve sci-com practices. It did so by performing large scale video experiments in which elements and variations (e.g. aim, tone, production value) of science communication videos were analyzed on their effectiveness in creating trust. We also found that depending on pre-existing attitudes towards the topic, viewers perceived different communication styles differently. These results were considered in the production of the video.on science communication called: “We Lied to You …And We’ll Do it Again” that was released in December 2021 and has been viewed by nearly 10 million viewers to date, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFqn3uy238E. Due to the overwhelming success of the video Kurzgesagt is planning an entire video series on sci-com.
TRESCA also developed a Proof of Concept of a fact checking toolkit and methodology. called Ms.W. Ms.W aims to help users track online news and their authors, by evaluating the credibility and trustworthiness of information sources. Ms.W REST API has been designed and deployed following an open source and agile software development methodology to facilitate the future development of the widget as a cloud-based service and ensure its long-term exploitation by stakeholders.
The TRESCA project also developed and launched a free online training course: Science Communication: communicating trustworthy information in the digital world, see: https://www.coursera.org/learn/communicating-trustworthy-information-in-the-digital-world. Via seven modules with various learning resources, participants of the MOOC explore the influence of digitalization on sci-com. The course was created to help journalists, scientists, policy makers, and the wider public improve their understanding of current sci-com practices.
The development of the MOOC and its continued availability provide multiple stakeholders access to state of the art techniques for sci-com. This MOOC is already integrated into current and forthcoming projects and will be used as a resource for training science communicators at university level. The prototype TRESCA Misinformation Widget (Ms. W) as a proof of concept, has demonstrated the capacity to support citizens and other stakeholders in news consumption and sharing. The exploitation of this tool will enable forthcoming work in areas of misinformation to be significantly reduced. Finally, the TRESCA video produced by Kurzgesagt clearly demonstrates how a sci-com company can reduce perceived barriers and expectations for how engagement with the public can be accomplished.