You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Lies and inaccurate information are as old as humanity, but never before have they been so easy to spread. Each moment of every day, the Internet and broadcast media purvey misinformation, either deliberately or accidentally, to a mass audience on subjects ranging from politics to consumer goods to science and medicine, among many others. Because misinformation now has the potential to affect behavior on a massive scale, it is urgently important to understand how it works and what can be done to mitigate its harmful effects. Misinformation and Mass Audiences brings together evidence and ideas from communication research, public health, psychology, political science, environmental studies, an...
In July 2019, participants gathered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, for an event organized by RTI International called Trust in Science. Our goal with the Trust in Science event was to foster collaborations and strengthen connections between nonprofit and funding organizations to address trust-related challenges that are affecting science and scientists. Collaboration between professionals and organizations is easy to cite as an abstract goal but can be challenging to pursue in practice for various reasons. Participants generated and considered both broad challenges and specific contexts in which trust has been strained. We discussed, for example, the use of wearable technologies for data collection, vaccine acceptance, biofuel research, survey research on topics such as sexual harassment monitoring, tools to help people navigate online information, and the development of physical spaces for local community discussion about science and technology. We offer an overview of key themes and ideas that emerged from our interactions. We hope that readers will consider this an open-source set of suggestions for future initiatives and innovations.
A data-driven analysis of how different people share information about health through social media. Using social media and peer-to-peer networks to teach people about science and health may seem like an obvious strategy. Yet recent research suggests that systematic reliance on social networks may be a recipe for inequity. People are not consistently inclined to share information with others around them, and many people are constrained by factors outside of their immediate control. Ironically, the highly social nature of humankind complicates the extent to which we can live in a society united solely by electronic media. Stretching well beyond social media, this book documents disparate tende...
On topics from genetic engineering and mad cow disease to vaccination and climate change, this Handbook draws on the insights of 57 leading science of science communication scholars who explore what social scientists know about how citizens come to understand and act on what is known by science.
An enlightening examination of what it means when Americans rely on family and friends to stay on top of politics. Accurate information is at the heart of democratic functioning. For decades, researchers interested in how information is disseminated have focused on mass media, but the reality is that many Americans today do not learn about politics from direct engagement with the news. Rather, about one-third of Americans learn chiefly from information shared by their peers in conversation or on social media. How does this socially transmitted information differ from that communicated by traditional media? What are the consequences for political attitudes and behavior? Drawing on evidence from experiments, surveys, and social media, Taylor N. Carlson finds that, as information flows first from the media then person to person, it becomes sparse, more biased, less accurate, and more mobilizing. The result is what Carlson calls distorted democracy. Although socially transmitted information does not necessarily render democracy dysfunctional, Through the Grapevine shows how it contributes to a public that is at once underinformed, polarized, and engaged.
Danger of health misinformation online, long a concern of medical and public health professionals, has come to the forefront of societal concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of their motives, creators and sharers of misinformation promote non-evidence-based health advice and treatment recommendations, and often deny health methods, measures, and approaches that are supported by the best evidence of the time. Unfortunately, many infrastructural, social, and cognitive factors make individuals vulnerable to misinformation. This book aims to assist information and health professionals and educators with all phases of information provision and support, from understanding users’ inf...
Publisher Description
"Childbirth is a window into the shifting cultural and political landscape of a particular place and time. Much can be learned about a culture by examining its treatment of women and children. More importantly, reproduction encompasses both a moral and a social imperative; the continuation of a society rests on childbirth. In imperial China, securing the continuation of the family line was the utmost filial act, with the family as the basic organizing unit of society and the state. Yi-li Wu noted that "childbirth was the warp on which the fabric of society was woven" in imperial China. I argue that childbirth remains so, and alterations in how childbirth is viewed and conducted merely point ...
Designed as an alternative stand-alone text or supplement to conventional research methods texts, Communication Impact introduces methods through engaging narrative descriptions of actual research projects driven by contemporary real-world questions. The featured case studies demonstrate three important points: 1) Doing communication research is an active, creative process; 2) Actual research projects are very different--and much more exciting--than typical textbook cases; and 3) Communication research generates knowledge that can make a difference to the world. Each chapter addresses a different method, including community-based research, research on organizations and institutions, problem-focused research, cross-cultural research, and research on new technologies.