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<p>Due to the pervasiveness of the Internet, particularly social media, the non-expert public increasingly engages with scientific information online. This tendency accelerated when the COVID-19 pandemic became a major concern. During this time, scientists stepped up to engage more frequently in online science communication to fulfil the public’s need to stay up to date with upcoming scientific knowledge. Technological advancements, including social media, allow both one-way and two-way communication between scientists and the public. However, while research studying dialogue-based science communication has increased, it often only centers and examines scientists. This paper calls attention to the importance of explicitly conceptualizing these mediated environments and proposes a theoretical framework called mediated Public Engagement with Technology and Science (mPETS) to investigate the interaction between scientists’ and the non-expert public’s involvement in communicating science. Mediated environments created by social media afford certain characteristics that differ from in-person science communication. The proposed mPETS framework uses Science and Technology Studies (STS)’s perspective and focuses on two areas of public participation in science: dialogue and knowledge production. The framework suggests that these two areas are merging in mediated environments and that members of the non-expert public are no longer only passive consumers of scientific knowledge; rather, some become knowledge co-producers themselves. This paper uses Lievrouw (<CitationRef CitationID="CR51">2012</CitationRef>; <CitationRef CitationID="CR52">2014</CitationRef>)’s conceptualization of mediation as a foundation to examine three aspects: artifacts, practices, and social arrangements. Four research foci are identified for other researchers using the mPETS framework: platform; identity; roles of participants; and co-production of knowledge. Additionally, potential research questions in these foci are proposed for further investigation. This framework aims to assist researchers who study public participation in science in mediated environments and to inform other researchers investigating mPETS by extending two of Einsiedel (<CitationRef CitationID="CR24">2016</CitationRef>)’s three categories with a theoretical framework of mediation.</p>

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Theoretical framework for technology-mediated public engagement with science

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月6日

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  • Noriko Hara

摘要

Due to the pervasiveness of the Internet, particularly social media, the non-expert public increasingly engages with scientific information online. This tendency accelerated when the COVID-19 pandemic became a major concern. During this time, scientists stepped up to engage more frequently in online science communication to fulfil the public’s need to stay up to date with upcoming scientific knowledge. Technological advancements, including social media, allow both one-way and two-way communication between scientists and the public. However, while research studying dialogue-based science communication has increased, it often only centers and examines scientists. This paper calls attention to the importance of explicitly conceptualizing these mediated environments and proposes a theoretical framework called mediated Public Engagement with Technology and Science (mPETS) to investigate the interaction between scientists’ and the non-expert public’s involvement in communicating science. Mediated environments created by social media afford certain characteristics that differ from in-person science communication. The proposed mPETS framework uses Science and Technology Studies (STS)’s perspective and focuses on two areas of public participation in science: dialogue and knowledge production. The framework suggests that these two areas are merging in mediated environments and that members of the non-expert public are no longer only passive consumers of scientific knowledge; rather, some become knowledge co-producers themselves. This paper uses Lievrouw (2012; 2014)’s conceptualization of mediation as a foundation to examine three aspects: artifacts, practices, and social arrangements. Four research foci are identified for other researchers using the mPETS framework: platform; identity; roles of participants; and co-production of knowledge. Additionally, potential research questions in these foci are proposed for further investigation. This framework aims to assist researchers who study public participation in science in mediated environments and to inform other researchers investigating mPETS by extending two of Einsiedel (2016)’s three categories with a theoretical framework of mediation.