The Notorious GPT: science communication in the age of artificial intelligence

ChatGPT provides original, human-like responses to user prompts based on supervised and reinforcement machine learning techniques. It has become the poster child of generative AI, which is widely diagnosed to disrupt many realms of life — including science communication. This essay reflects on this development. It discusses opportunities for the practice of science communication, such as generative AI’s translational and multimodal capacities and its capacity to provide dialogical science communication at scale, but also challenges in terms of accuracy, ‘wrongness at scale’ or job market implications. It also ponders implications for research on science communication, which has largely neglected (generative) AI so far. It argues that scholars should analyze public communication “about” AI as well as communication “with” AI, given its ‘increased agency’. Furthermore, scholars should analyze the impact of AI on science communication itself and the larger science communication ecosystem

How terrorist attacks are presented in the news of CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and ARD

The article analyzes to what extent news reporting on terrorist attacks globalized, regionalized, or country specific. We compare coverage on four terrorist incidents in the main news shows of the US edition of CNN, of Al Jazeera’s Arabic language service, of the British BBC, and of the German ARD. The analysis shows cross-national similarities in several dimensions: the analyzed media devote nearly identical amounts of attention to the four events, employ similar stylistic devices to describe them, and evaluate them similarly. At the same time, there are notable differences. These differences are not found between Western channels and Al Jazeera – as proponents of a ‘clash of civilizations’ might expect – but between CNN and Al Jazeera on the one hand, and the BBC and ARD on the other. The former interpret the attacks as an expression of a global “war on terror”, whereas the latter see them as criminal attacks by a few individuals against the human civilization itself

eine Analyse deutscher Pressekommentare zum EU‐Beitritt der Türkei

Trotz der erfolgreichen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Regimebildung der Europäischen Union gab es bislang keine umfassendere gesellschaftliche Debatte über die Frage, welche Art von Gemeinwesen die EU in den Augen der breiteren Öffentlichkeit sein soll. Dies änderte sich mit der Auseinandersetzung über den möglichen EU-Beitritt der Türkei. Dort prallten erstmals auch öffentlich unterschiedliche Vorstellungen über die mögliche Ausgestaltung der EU aufeinander. Der vorliegende Artikel rekonstruiert auf Basis einer Analyse der Kommentare deutscher Leit-Printmedien das inhaltliche Spektrum dieser Vorstellungen. Er kann zeigen, dass sich diesbezüglich eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Entwürfe der EU finden lässt, die u.a. auf politische und kulturelle Traditionslinien, ökonomische und weltpolitische Interessenlagen sowie auf die geografische Lage der Türkei verweisen. Zudem wird verdeutlicht, dass diese unterschiedlichen Entwürfe von Zeitungen mit unterschiedlichen weltanschaulichen Positionen in verschiedener Weise verwendet werden, und dass sie mit differierenden Bewertungen des EU-Beitritts der Türkei einhergehen

Editorial: Reconceptualizing public sphere(s) in the digital age? On the role and future of public sphere theory

Theories of the public sphere—or more recently, of plural public spheres—are core elements of communication and media research. A lively and dynamic debate exists about the respective theories, and the approaches employed to do so have diversified in recent years. This special issue of Communication Theory aims to assess the role and future of public sphere(s) theory in digital societies: if, and where, are concepts of the public sphere(s) still useful and needed, which criticisms are (still) valid, which not, which new ones might be necessary, and which concepts need to be developed or elaborated to respond meaningfully to the digital transformation? This editorial introduces the topic of and contributions to the special issue as well as nine theses on the development of public sphere(s) theorizing

Computational methods for the analysis of climate change communication: Towards an integrative and reflexive approach

Computational methods, in particular text-as-data or Natural Language Processing (NLP) approaches, have become popular to study climate change communication as a global and large-scale phenomenon. Scholars have discussed opportunities and challenges of these methods for climate change communication, with some proponents and critics taking strong positions, either embracing the potential of computational methods or critically questioning their value. Mirroring developments in the broader social scientific debate, we aim to bring both sides together by proposing a reflexive, integrative approach for computational research on climate change communication: We reflect on strengths (e.g., making data big and small, nowcasting observations) and weaknesses (e.g., introducing empiricist epistemologies, ignoring biases) of computational approaches. Moreover, we also provide concrete and constructive guidance on when and how to integrate (or not integrate) these methods based on theoretical considerations. We thereby understand computational methods as part of an ever-increasing, diverse toolbox for analyzing climate change communication. This article is categorized under: The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice The Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Sociology/Anthropology of Climate Knowledg

Science-related populism declining during the COVID-19 pandemic: a panel survey of the Swiss population before and after the Coronavirus outbreak

In many countries, the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased public support for societal institutions including science, a phenomenon described as “rally-round-the-flag” dynamic. However, it is unclear if this dynamic has also reduced public resentment toward science such as science-related populist attitudes, that is, the preference of people’s common sense over allegedly elitist scientific knowledge. We test this, relying on individual-level data from panel surveys before and during the pandemic in Switzerland. Results show that science-related populist attitudes decreased after the pandemic started. The decrease was more pronounced among people who had been strong supporters of science-related populism prior to the pandemic, but otherwise spread equally across different sociodemographic and attitudinal segments of the Swiss population. This shows that the Coronavirus outbreak has the potential to undermine persistent (populist) resentments toward science and its epistemology among the general population

Beyond the ivory tower: Measuring and explaining academic engagement with journalists, politicians and industry representatives among Swiss professorss

Scholars from different theoretical schools have posited that in recent decades, science and society have moved closer together, and the concept of academic engagement has been proposed to capture one part of this approximation empirically. This study analyzes the academic engagement of individual scholars towards politicians, industry representatives and journalists. It uses comprehensive survey data on Swiss professors from all disciplines, all the country’s universities and from associated research institutes. It assesses, firstly, the degree to which these professors have professional contacts to journalists, politicians and industry representatives. Secondly, it explains the extent of these contacts, using multi-level modelling that incorporates individual factors as well as organizational and institutional contexts. Our study shows that academic engagement is quite common with strong differences between disciplines. Furthermore, professors with higher academic productivity, positive personal attitude towards communication activities as well as a leadership position have more outside contacts. The gender and nationality of the professors, however, only play a role for some of the contacts with non-scientific actors

The European Union's idea of gender equality and its support among citizens of 27 European countries

"This article first describes the European Union’s idea of gender equality and its im-plementation into European policies. The second section analyses the extent to which citizens of different European countries support the idea of gender equality. The em-pirical basis for our analysis is the “Eurobarometer 63.1” from 2005. The descriptive findings show that while a majority of European citizens support the idea of gender equality, there are substantial differences between individual countries. In the third section we explain these differences by referring to the country’s level of moderniza-tion and degree of politically institutionalised gender equality, as well as the respon-dents’ religious orientation and level of education, among other factors." [author's abstract

Climate change coverage: more politics, less weather

Climate change is a global problem, and according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, it is currently the “greatest challenge facing humanity.” But it is a long-term, slow developing, and often invisible phenomenon so most people do not experience it first hand. Research has shown that news outlets are people’s main source of information on climate change. But how much attention do media professionals pay to the topic

Conceptualizing platformed conspiracism: Analytical framework and empirical case study of BitChute and Gab

This article introduces the notion of platformed conspiracism to conceptualize reconfigured forms of conspiracy theory communication as a result of the mutual shaping between platform specificities and emergent user practices. To investigate this relational socio-technological shaping, we propose a conceptual platform-sensitive framework that systematically guides the study of platformed conspiracism. To illustrate the application of the framework, we examine how platformed conspiracism unfolds on BitChute and Gab during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings show that both platforms have positioned themselves as technological equivalents to their “mainstream” counterparts, YouTube and Twitter, by offering similar interfaces and features. However, given their specific services, community-based and politically marketed business models, and minimalist approaches to content moderation, both platforms provide conspiracy propagators a fertile refuge through which they can diversify their presence and profit monetarily from their supply of conspiracy theories and active connection with their followers