Learning without seeking?: Incidental exposure to science news on social media & knowledge of gene editing

Little is known about how incidental exposure to news, interpersonal discussion, and the diversity of social networks interact in social media environments and for science-related issues. Using a U.S. nationally representative survey, we investigate how these features relate to factual knowledge of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of science communication Vol. 20; no. 4; p. 1
Main Authors Anderson, Joshua T. L., Howell, Emily L., Xenos, Michael A., Scheufele, Dietram A., Brossard, Dominique
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Trieste Sissa Medialab srl / Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati 01.01.2021
Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati
Subjects
Americans
Editing
Genes
Knowledge
Learning
News
Social media
Social networks
Surveys
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Summary:Little is known about how incidental exposure to news, interpersonal discussion, and the diversity of social networks interact in social media environments and for science-related issues. Using a U.S. nationally representative survey, we investigate how these features relate to factual knowledge of gene editing. Incidental exposure to science-related news interacts with interpersonal discussion and network heterogeneity and reveals that the relationship between incidental exposure to news and knowledge is strongest among those who discuss the least. Incidental exposure could alleviate knowledge gaps between the Facebook users who are the most and least involved in interpersonal discussions about science.
ISSN:1824-2049
1824-2049
DOI:10.22323/2.20040201