Science communication on Twitter: Measuring indicators of engagement and their links to user interaction in communication scholars' Tweet content.
- Authors
- Type
- Published Article
- Journal
- Public understanding of science (Bristol, England)
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 860–869
- Identifiers
- DOI: 10.1177/09636625231166552
- PMID: 37132036
- Source
- Medline
- Keywords
- Language
- English
- License
- Unknown
Abstract
Scientists increasingly use Twitter for communication about science. The microblogging service has been heralded for its potential to foster public engagement with science; thus, measuring how engaging, that is dialogue-oriented, tweet content is, has become a relevant research object. Tweet content designed in an engaging, dialogue-oriented way is also supposed to link to user interaction (e.g. liking, retweeting). The present study analyzed content-related and functional indicators of engagement in scientists' tweet content, applying content analysis to original tweets (n = 2884) of 212 communication scholars. Findings show that communication scholars tweet mostly about scientific topics, with, however, low levels of engagement. User interaction, nevertheless, correlated with content-related and functional indicators of engagement. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for public engagement with science.
