During this years MediaPsych 2023 Conference from September 6 to September 8 in Luxembourg scientists from CAIS will be presenting presentations.
Johannes Breuer will be presenting on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and Media Psychology.
- Breuer, J. (2023). On the Road to Media PsAIchology? Mapping the potentials and challenges of artificial intelligence for research in media psychology
Josephine Schmitt will be presenting her research in regards to scientists communication on climate change. An abstract can be found below.
- Reich, S. & Schmitt, J. B. (2023). Science Popularization in a Polarized Society: How Scientists in the Field of Climate Change Communicate Science and Deal with Potential Negative Feedback.
ABSTRACT:
Science popularization is essential for scientists (Cerrato et al., 2018). Online media has become the preferred mode of communication, especially for younger scientists (Besley et al., 2018). At the same time, online hostility against scientists and science popularizers increases, particularly among those who belong to marginalized groups (Houlden et al., 2022; Veletsianos et al., 2018) or work on controversial topics like climate change (Branford et al., 2019; Nogrady, 2021). This not only affects the personal lives of these individuals as it may result in feelings of anger, fear, and decreased well-being (Wachs et al., 2022) but also has wider implications for the scientific community. Online hostility against scientists is potentially undermining the scientific endeavor for truth (Branford et al., 2019) and has the potential to silence certain scholars or topics (Celuch et al., 2022; Nölleke et al., 2023).
Scientists in the field of climate change are facing growing populism and anti-science sentiment (Mede & Schäfer, 2020; Merkley, 2020). Empirical investigations into their coping with online hostility are scarce. Understanding how scientists deal with online hostility and develop strategies to handle it is important, especially since science communication about climate change continues to be an integral part of stopping or mitigating Anthropocene climate change.
Using qualitative content analysis of guideline interviews with scientists in the area of environmental change, we answer the following questions with a special focus on gender: What motivates scientists working on climate change to engage with the public and what do they expect? What reactions do these scientists get to their science communication activities? Finally, the study seeks to understand how scientists handle negative feedback, how it affects their personal well-being and their work, and what strategies they use to deal with it.