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

在COVID-19大流行期间，人们越来越多地在网上寻求科学信息，尤其是通过社交媒体。尽管COVID-19大流行迫使外行和科学家都使用在线社交媒体进行交流，但科学家如何交流知识以及外行如何理解和解释科学信息存在很大差距。拟议项目旨在研究从事COVID-19相关主题工作的科学家的最佳实践和经验教训，这些科学家使用双向社交媒体沟通工具与公众互动。该项目审查并确定了基于研究的战略，以帮助科学家利用社交媒体改善在线科学传播，以更好地告知，参与和激励更广泛的人群，以加强对美国全球科学领导地位的支持。拟议项目的目标是从经验上检查所使用的功能（例如，这些数据包括在社交媒体平台上发布的信息（转发）和内容，以及与这些平台用户（科学家和公众）的访谈数据，以制定基于研究的战略，使科学家能够利用双向在线交流与公众接触。研究团队将使用混合方法将结果转化为策略，以及帮助科学家使用社交媒体的资源工具包。这些数据将通过观察社交媒体平台功能（Twitter和Reddit AMA）、在线互动的内容分析以及对45名COVID-19相关科学家和15名非专业参与者的采访来收集。本研究的预期成果将为双向在线科学传播提供理论模型，并推动科学学和社会媒体研究领域的发展。研究成果将与公众分享，两个信息视频（一个面向科学家，另一个面向公众）将与科学家工具包一起通过社交媒体沿着分发。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.