This study shares key findings from evaluation research for Inclusive SciComm: A Symposium on Advancing Inclusive Public Engagement with Science. The symposium, organized by the University of Rhode Island's Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting with support from partner organizations, took place on September 28 and 29, 2018 at the University of Rhode Island. Pre-and post-symposium surveys showed that after attending the symposium, participants reported higher levels of knowledge about and confidence in implementing inclusive approaches to science communication. Participants also exhibited three types of response orientations: emotion, knowledge, and action.

The covid-19 pandemic disrupted political, economic, and social life in the United States beginning in March 2020, disproportionately affecting historically underrepresented groups. Media assumed unique roles during the pandemic, serving simultaneously as the gateway to work, education, social life, news, and public health information. Yet the covid-19 pandemic has been so challenged by misinformation that the World Health Organization declared it an infodemic. Because misinformation can prolong pandemics and increase deaths, news and media literacy can benefit society at large, especially vulnerable populations. The purpose of this descriptive study is to capture how undergraduates used media, how they obtained their news, and how they engaged news literacy skills during the covid-19 pandemic. A survey of over 900 undergraduate students showed that over two-thirds of respondents increased media use. Over half of respondents reported entertainment as their top reason for media use during the pandemic and reported news as their last reason. Respondents reporting previous exposure to news literacy education were significantly more likely to use most of the measured news literacy strategies. The findings of this study can support developing pandemic-responsive news and media literacy education which will be useful during future pandemics.

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This study proposes an approach to cultural hybridity that centers the market, not geopolitical borders or regions, as the driving force of cultural hybridization. In this model, cultural hybridity manifests on a continuum between market-receptive hybridity, which incorporates cultural characteristics of the dominant market, and market-resistant hybridity, which limits the influence of cultural characteristics of the dominant market. To illustrate, this study identifies market strategies and examines how Colombian musician Shakira and Mexican musician Lila Downs employ various practices to create market-receptive and market-resistant cultural hybridity across their careers. This market-driven approach to hybridity decenters the countries of the Global North, contributes to ongoing efforts to undo the historical homogenization of the Global South, and works to explain cultural hybridity as the result of markets, not countries, allowing the framework to be applied within or across regions.

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