Effects of politicization on the practice of science

Schmid-Petri, Hannah; Bienzeisler, Nils; Beseler, Arista

doi:10.1016/bs.pmbts.2021.11.005

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In politicised scientific fields, different actors try to make their voices heard and pursue particular political goals, which is also assumed for scientists (Schmid-Petri et al, 2022). Research has shown that some climate scientists advocate for certain political outcomes (Pielke, 2004;Post & Ramirez, 2018).…”

Section: Comparing Climate Change and Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous work has shown that scientists also use Twitter to express their own personal views, especially in highly politicised fields (e.g., Jahng & Lee, 2018;Walter et al, 2017). Digital media can even be seen as drivers of politicisation (Schmid-Petri et al, 2022). The 280-character limit on platforms like Twitter is said to create a "temptation for scientists" to communicate beyond the presentation of evidence-based information (Brossard & Scheufele, 2022, p. 614).…”

Section: Visible Scientists Addressing Politics On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Particularly in politicised scientific fields, the distinction between science and policy is often blurred (Post et al, 2021). Since the demand for advice from scien-tists has increased, they are increasingly expected to speak out in public debates (Schmid-Petri et al, 2022). Scientists might attempt to reach political actors through the general public (Tøsse, 2013).…”

Section: Visible Scientists Addressing Politics On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When scientists address policy advice, they transgress their role as "pure scientists" who mainly focus on their own research and do not actively engage in public discourses (Pielke, 2007). Scientists advocating for a particular policy are defined as "issue advocates" (Post et al, 2021;Schmid-Petri et al, 2022). They contribute to the politicisation of science (Schmid-Petri et al, 2022).…”

Section: Visible Scientists Addressing Politics On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, scientists become involved in politicised scientific fields (Post & Ramirez, 2018;Scheufele, 2014) where they are facing a new challenge. When engaging in politicised discourses, scientists operate in contexts determined by factors outside of science (Schmid-Petri et al, 2022). Here, scientists can be expected to not only assert established scientific knowledge and justify particular lines of policy (Pielke, 2004;Post & Ramirez, 2018;Scheufele, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

“You Can Do Better Than That!”: Tweeting Scientists Addressing Politics on Climate Change and Covid-19

Biermann

Peters

Taddicken

2023

MaC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic are global challenges in which scientists play a crucial role, and immediate political actions are necessary. However, in contrast to climate change, strong governmental actions have been taken during the pandemic. While climate change has been on the public agenda for several decades, the pandemic is a rather new issue. In such cases, social media offer scientists the potential to disseminate scientific results to the public and express calls to action and their personal views towards politics. Thus far, little is known about the extent to which scientists make use of this option. In this study, we investigated the similarities and differences between visible German climate experts and visible German Covid-19 experts regarding advocacy and assessments of policies and political actors on Twitter. We conducted a manual content analysis of tweets (N = 5,915) from 2021 of the most visible climate experts (N = 5) and the most visible Covid-19 experts (N = 5). The results show that climate experts addressed politics more often than Covid-19 experts in their tweets. The selected climate experts more often expressed negative evaluations, the degradation of competence and blaming. The Covid-19 experts, however, made more political calls for action. We assume that an issue’s history and context will affect scientists’ public assessments of politics. Our comparative study provides insight into the interrelations between science and politics in digital communication environments and elucidates visible scientists’ communication behaviours towards different socio-scientific issues.

show abstract

Section: Comparing Climate Change and Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Visible Scientists Addressing Politics On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%