Testing how different narrative perspectives achieve communication objectives and goals in online natural science videos

Abstract

Communication of science through online media has become a primary means of disseminating and connecting science with a public audience. However, online media can come in many forms and stories of scientific discovery can be told by many individuals. We tested whether the relationship of a spokesperson to the science story being told (i.e., the narrative perspective) influences how people react and respond to online science media. We created five video stimuli that fell into three treatments: a scientist presenting their own research (male or female), a third-party summarizing research (male or female), and an infographic-like video with no on-screen presenter. Each of these videos presented the same fabricated science story about the discovery of a new ant species (Formicidae). We used Qualtrics to administer and obtain survey responses from 515 participants (~100 per video). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the videos and after viewing the stimulus answered questions assessing their perceptions of the video (trustworthiness and enjoyment), the spokesperson (trustworthiness and competence), scientists in general (competence and warmth), and attitudes towards the research topic and funding. Participants were also asked to recall what they had seen and heard. We determined that when participants watched a video in which a scientist presented their own research, participants perceived the spokesperson as having more expertise than a third-party presenter, and as more trustworthy and having more expertise than the no-spokesperson stimuli. Viewing a scientist presenting their own work also humanized the research, with participants more often including a person in their answer to the recall question. Overall, manipulating the narrative perspective of the source of a single online video communication effort is effective at impacting immediate objective outcomes related to spokesperson perceptions, but whether those objectives can positively influence long-term goals requires more investigation.

Publicação de videoartigos como estratégia para impulsionar o consumo de Ciência

“…Em contrapartida, ao destacar as redes sociais dentre as estratégias de divulgação para aumentar o impacto das publicações, verificou-se predisposição dos participantes de compartilhar conhecimento, além de interesse em métricas direcionadas para visibilidade e popularidade que podem emergir dessa exposição. Isso caracteriza um movimento mais recente de divulgação independente que foi discutido em outros trabalhos bem atuais (Rose;Markowitz;Brossard, 2020;Ferreira et al, 2021;Ruzi;Lee;Smith, 2021). Dentre os mais jovens, esse movimento em direção às redes sociais é mais intenso, também pelo fato de boa parte deles estarem em procura de melhor posicionamento no mercado de trabalho, precisando dessa visibilidade para atrair oportunidades de consolidação profissional ou por ainda não estarem estabilizados em sua área de atuação.…”

“…Ademais, têm reflexos na visibilidade que afeta cientistas e instituições de pesquisa (Berkowitz, 2013;Rosenthal, 2018); contribuem para incrementar as métricas de produção científica ao complementar um artigo escrito (Ferreira et al, 2021); promovem mais repercussão junto ao público quando exibem cientistas versus não cientistas (Rosenthal, 2020); e vêm ganhando mais atenção em áreas como ciências ambientais, ciências da saúde e biotecnologia (Pan;Hua, 2016). O próprio aumento expressivo do número de citações de vídeos do YouTube como fontes de pesquisa e objeto de estudo (Kousha;Theiwall;Abdoli, 2012) motiva discussões sobre a relevância do uso dos vídeos científicos online como fonte fidedigna de informação científica (Damude et al, 2017;Ragimova;Loginov;Khorov, 2019;Boy;Burcher;Christ, 2020;Nagumo;Teles;Silva, 2020 Todavia, há controvérsias sobre certos benefícios e desconfiança de que o novo gênero seja aplicável com sucesso em determinadas áreas de conhecimento (Rosenthal, 2020;Entradas et al, 2020;Ruzi;Lee;Smith, 2021).…”

Video abstract production guide

“…Video abstracts, i.e., filmed versions of the written abstract of a scientific paper (Berkowitz, 2013;Spicer, 2014), have the potential to maintain trustworthiness while connecting the researchers and the institutions with new audiences (Kippes, 2021). Having scientists promoting their work in a video can also encourage middle school students to pursue careers in science while demystifying some preconceptions about science and its stakeholders (Ruzi et al, 2021). Beyond all the workshops and courses (Plank et al, 2017;Chan, 2019;Angelone et al, 2020) that give researchers the media tools needed to produce their movies, a new body of work provides first-person testimonies about this process (Krebs et al, 2020;Smith, 2020;Brennan, 2021;Maynard, 2021).…”

Tools to communicate science: looking for an effective video abstract in Ecology and Environmental Sciences

“…Despite the growing number of specialized companies creating this kind of product, most focusing on animation (e.g., Research Square, SciPod, Promoshin), video abstracts still lack a distribution strategy in the digital environment. These videos continue to be used mainly for peer-to-peer communication, indexed in scientific journals or uploaded to video channels, and, in many cases, are not promoted to other audiences [Ferreira, Lopes, Granado, Freitas & Loureiro, 2021;Ruzi et al, 2021]. On the one hand, they are essential for students and researchers to demonstrate complex processes that are difficult to reproduce by writing [Jamali, Nabavi & Asadi, 2018]; for instance, JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) protocol videos cited in other papers and mentioned on Twitter with practical and methodological purposes [Jamali et al, 2018;Xu, Yu, Hemminger & Dong, 2018].…”