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Fiction references in extended reality news: The Matrix is a good thing?

 By Dr Emma Kaylee Graves-Sandriman. Photo credit: TheDigitalArtist Despite their dystopic narratives, science fiction references have been used in UK news about XR to present the technologies positively. Many science fiction narratives present cautionary tales of technology, particularly when it comes to extended reality (XR; including virtual, augmented and mixed reality). My recent research examined the use of fiction references in UK news about XR. As summarised here, I found that journalists typically use fiction references to present XR positively, despite the dystopic narratives found in fiction. Fiction references in UK news In UK news, fiction references are used to support readers’ understanding of XR products through the use of metaphors, comparisons and imagery. For example, a headline about virtual reality in the Sun began with “ Enter the Matrix ” and the MailOnline described a virtual reality “ Star Trek-like headset ”. Another used imagery of Tom Cruise in Minority Rep
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Podcasting as a community outreach tool in cancer

 By Sevtap Savas, PhD., Kayla Crichton, Janine Taylor-Cutting, and Jason Wiseman. Podcasting can be a valuable public communication tool to connect new dots, hear new perspectives, and disseminate useful knowledge on cancer. Newfoundland, Canada | Photo credit:  Sevtap Savas Podcasting can be a valuable tool for generating public knowledge and sharing content with the wider community.  In this blog post, we discuss our experience with podcasting as a public engagement tool. First, let’s introduce our partnership! Public Interest Group on Cancer Research is a group of three scientists and 10 community members located in Newfoundland and Labrador, a Canadian province with one the highest cancer incidence and mortality rates in Canada .  One of our projects in 2023-2024 was about creating digital stories and knowledge on cancer, including sharing lived experiences, providing information on cancer care and support programs, and advocacy. A part of this project was dedicated to podcasts.
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Can writing style predict audience engagement with science news?

By Ifat Zimmerman, Tali Tal, and Ayelet Baram-Tsabari. What makes science news engaging? Is it using less jargon? Employing a narrative style? Or ensuring relevance? Are these outcomes similar for different types of audiences?  Engagement with science texts potentially arises from a nuanced interaction between internal factors – such as personal characteristics, cultural values, and knowledge acquired throughout life – and external factors – including accessibility strategies, i.e., providing explanations and addressing socio-scientific themes. In our study, we tackled both aspects. Our study examined how accessibility strategies correlate with audience engagement , particularly reader comments, within text-based popular science news. This is studied across two distinct audience groups: one comprised of science enthusiasts – a science-minded audience – and the other representing a more general readership – a general audience .  Pixabay We employed deductive content analysis guided
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Young people are trusting and championing science

By Karin Gustafsson. By taking to the streets, youth across the globe have publicly and loudly shown a strong distrust toward our political representatives’ capacity and willingness to address the current climate crisis. However, besides their demand for politicians and the adult generation to “listen to the science”, we know very little about these environmentally active youths’ relation to and potential trust in science.  In my most recent study , we learned how science is highly trusted by these environmentally active young people in Sweden. Science is understood as the institution that can and should be responsible for telling the truth about tackling climate change. Thus, scientists are seen as capable of helping us all learn about the climate crisis and what to do about it.   Pixabay My study is based on Fridays for Future (FFF) in the movement’s origin country of Sweden. FFF Sweden has been studied together with Sweden’s oldest and still largest nongovernmental environmental you
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Mojirayo Ogunkanmi succeeds Elena Milani as Social Media Editor

 By Hans Peter Peters. Some may have already noticed on the homepage of Public Understanding of Science that we recently had a change in our editorial team. Mojirayo Ogunkanmi succeeds Elena Milani as Social Media Editor. For two years Elena had been responsible for our X (Twitter) account (@scicom) and this Blog. In the past months, she has handed over these tasks to Mojirayo in what I can only call a seamless transition. Elena quit her position in the Editorial Team of PUS because of new professional and personal duties. As mother of a newborn daughter, she needed to readjust her priorities and make economic use of increasingly precious resources such as time and energy. For me it is a long time ago, but I remember well the changes in family life caused by both the excitement and burden in tending our children. I wish for Elena that she gets a lot of the excitement and at least some sleep in the months to come. We are grateful for the two years Elena contributed with her sizable soci
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