NSF SoS: DCI Identifying Effective Science Communication Outcomes with Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people have increasingly sought scientific information online, especially through social media. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled both laypeople and scientists to use online social media to communicate, there is a large gap in how scientists communicate knowledge and how laypeople understand and interpret scientific information. The proposed project aims to examine the best practices and lessons learned from scientists working on COVID-19-related topics who interact with the public using two-way social media communication tools. This project examines and identifies research-based strategies to help scientists improve online science communication using social media to better inform, engage, and inspire the broader population to strengthen support of America’s global leadership in science. The proposed project’s goal is to empirically examine the functions used (e.g., retweets) and content posted on social media platforms, as well as interview data with users of these platforms (scientists and the public), to develop research-based strategies for scientists to engage with the public using two-way online communication. The research team will use a mixed method approach to convert results into strategies, as well as a Toolkit of resources, for helping scientists use social media. The data will be collected through observation of social media platform functions (Twitter and Reddit AMA), content analysis of online interactions, and interviews with 45 COVID-19 related scientists and 15 lay participants. The expected outcomes of the study will contribute a theoretical model of two-way online science communication and advance the field of Science of Science and social media research. The research findings will be shared with the public, and two informational videos (one for scientists, and the other for the public) will be distributed along with the Toolkit for scientists via social media.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.