Examining Scientific Literacy through New Media

Xiaoqing Gu,Lin Lin,Chunli Wang

doi:10.29333/ejmste/109948

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the impact of new media on scientific literacy. Content analysis with a coding scheme was performed on 42 filtered websites and 20 microblogs to analyze the role of new media in disseminating scientific knowledge. The results showed that the quality of science-oriented websites was higher than that of microblogs. Although both types of new media include valid and accurate information, concerns have been expressed regarding the lack of in-depth analysis of scientific knowledge. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to 1,870 sampled college students to determine their scientific literacy levels. According to the results, the use of science-oriented microblogs does not produce a statistical difference, whereas students who use science-oriented websites have higher scientific literacy level than the non-users. Furthermore, students’ identification ability for scientific information from new media is significantly correlated with their scientific literacy. Students’ education, major, and identification ability contributed to their scientific literacy. Suggestions about how to improve the quality of science-oriented new media and how to develop students’ scientific literacy through new media have been discussed.

Highlights

Scientific literacy and economic growth have been working together (Hanushek & Woessman, 2016)
There are research showing that new media, social media, are playing a controversial role in increasing public engagement for scientific knowledge
Limitations result from sampling college students as representatives of the general public, considering that college students are the typical avid users of new media, generalizing the findings, if any, to indicate any impact that social media may have on the scientific literacy level of the general public, is rational

Summary

Introduction

Scientific literacy and economic growth have been working together (Hanushek & Woessman, 2016). Impey (2013) showed that US non-science major students’ scientific literacy only gained 10% by attending science classes, and the influence of new media should not be ignored in future study. There are research showing that new media, social media, are playing a controversial role in increasing public engagement for scientific knowledge. One of the primary reasons for this controversial role is that everyone can disseminate scientific knowledge without the filter of a traditional gatekeeper (Brossard, 2013; Laberge, 2016). Scientific knowledge is typically perceived as anticommon sense (Brossard, 2013), thereby making its dissemination a complex process. Higher-level and complex scientific knowledge is difficult to disseminate through the fragmented and non-integrated manner of new media

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion