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Marie Boran
The impact of online comments on role perception and emerging practices amongst science journalists
Marie Boran
Once upon a time the role of the science journalist
was EPIC
Exclusivity (sole mediators between scientist and public, no competition)
Privilege (only ones with access to scientific papers, conferences, interviews with scientists)
Informers (transmission communication model)
Clout (agenda-setters, framed science in society)
Marie Boran
The role of “good old fashioned” science journalismReporter
Conduit
Watchdog
Agenda-setter
“history embedded in pedagogy and dependence on scientific expertise.” (Secko et al. 2011)
Marie Boran
Social media is challenging journalistic norms
“The people formerly known as the audience” – (Rosen 2006)
“The venerable profession of journalism finds itself at a rare moment in history, where for the first time, its hegemony as gatekeeper of the news is threatened not just by new technology and competitors, but, potentially, by the audience it serves.” – (Willis and Bowman 2003)
Participatory journalism (also known as produsage, UGC, citizen journalism): comments are by far the most common form
Marie Boran
Emerging roles in this new digital space (Fahy & Nisbet, 2011) Conduit: explains, translates from experts -> non-specialist publics
Public intellectual: high degree of specialisation, distinct perspective, social implications
Agenda-setter: identifies, calls attention to important research
Watchdog: holds scientists & institutions to scrutiny
Investigative reporter: in-depth journalistic investigations, “good old fashioned” journalism
Civic educator: informs a non-specialist audience about science, its risks, methods, aims, etc.
Curator: Gather science news, adds informed opinion, commentary, evaluative
Convener: Connects scientists and publics, issue-driven
Advocate: specific worldview, on behalf of issue or idea e.g. sustainability
Marie Boran
A profession divided on the usefulness of online commentsTraditionalists vs. ‘convergers’ who are more
willing to interact with their audience (Robinson 2010)
‘Segregationist’ vs. ‘integrationist’ (Quandt and Heinonen 2009)
Beneficial yet crappy (Bergstrom and Wadbring 2014)
Marie Boran
The Discomfort Zone“I try – and sometimes fail – to maintain
constructive discourse in the comments … And as a result it’s different. It’s a discomfort zone … I’m not here to provide you with a soft couch and free drinks if you’re an enviro or if you are a conservative. It’s a place to challenge yourself.”
- Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth blog at the New York Times.
Marie Boran
What usually happens:
Marie Boran
Where my research fits in: We know how journalists feel about online comments
and commenters (several interview and survey-based studies to back this up)
Helps define new roles and practices of science journalism online …to a certain extent
No quantitative data on how much and in what way science journalists interact with their audience
Data gathering: the Guardian Open Platform (API)
Assess to what extent this is constructive discourse, as Revkin advocates
Typology of science commenters
Either compare over time or between science topics