The acquisition of health and science information in the 21^st century

Public understanding of science and technology in the Internet era

“…New groups and organizations of information brokers are being formed to collect, filter, spin, and redistribute information—often reflecting particular ideologies or theologies. The market for information is now largely decentralized and we are just beginning to understand the implications of this change for democratic government (Prior, 2007) and for the public acceptance of science (Miller et al, 2021).…”

“…This change encompasses all areas of information in modern societies, but it is especially relevant to the public understanding of health and science. Some scholars predicted the emergence of a just-in-time system on the eve of the Internet era (Peters, 1993), and the experience of high-speed electronic communication at work and at home in recent decades has profoundly changed the way that humans acquire information today (Miller et al, 2021). The driving force in any just-in-time system is salience.…”

Knowledge and Well-Being in the Digital Society: Towards a Research Agenda

“…And in the context of this person's everyday life and plans, there are many smaller (e.g., checking the bus schedule) and larger (e.g., researching potential employers or graduate programs) information needs readily and effectively satisfied through digital media. Beyond merely retrieving "ready-made" information as in the case of the visa requirements, many information seeking tasks are more complex, aiming at knowledge building by continuously integrating new information (e.g., health or science, Miller et al, 2021). Often and increasingly, people in digital societies first turn to digital media whenever they need to find specific information or read up on a topic in everyday life -in countries such as Switzerland, the internet is now on par with interpersonal contacts in terms of importance as an information source (Latzer et al, 2021c).…”

Public acceptance of evolution in the United States, 1985–2020

“…An increasingly important-and changing-measure concerns adult science information acquisition. The traditional broadcast model of information dissemination is being replaced by a just-intime information acquisition system that takes advantage of the Internet and related digital communication technologies (Case and Given, 2016;Miller, 2010bMiller, , 2010cMiller et al, 2021). Because of the changes in information technologies over the 30 years, our measures have varied to reflect the dominant technologies and practices of the time.…”

“…Prior research indicates that higher levels of educational attainment and participation in college science courses provides a set of cognitive tools that enable individuals to more effectively seek science information in the Internet era (Miller, 2010b(Miller, , 2010cMiller et al, 2021;van Dijk, 2020). The 2019 model is consistent with this view: individuals who report a higher level of overt information-seeking on the Internet and related digital platforms were slightly more likely to accept evolution than individuals who did not engage in this kind of science information-seeking (total effect = 0.07), holding constant the preceding demographic and educational variables.…”