Context of dissemination

In recent years there has been a growing emphasis world-wide on encouraging scientists to communicate research findings to publics outside the traditional academic communities. Many grant funding agencies (e.g. the National Science Foundation in the US and all Research Councils in the UK) now require grant applicants to provide a dissemination plan that includes communication with non-academic groups, be they policymakers, potential research beneficiaries or the wider public community [6]. Russell et al. [7] goes further, recommending that all scientists proactively engage with communications professionals and the media to communicate their work in a more open manner. Peters et al. [8] (p. 204) report that in their survey of scientists in five countries over two thirds of scientists had interacted with the media in the past three years. Nevertheless, “many scientists indicated that they felt uncertain and perceived a lack of control” in their interactions with the media [8].

Despite encouragement to communicate research, there can be a perception that scientists remain reluctant to seek media attention, and that this can be influenced by their perceptions of the handling of past scientific controversies [9]. Some scientists operate with minimal understandings of the science mediation process and their own role within it [10]. Although it is increasingly estimated that stories are packaged and prepared for media coverage by the scientific community [11,12], individual scientists may fail to engage proactively with communications professionals, such as university press officers [13]. Khot [13] suggests that scientists may simply forget to alert press officers to their research or to consider approaching traditional media as a tool for communicating their research.

Traditional media outlets, are, of course, not the only outlet that researchers could use to disseminate their research findings and indeed research in the US suggests that amongst younger age groups, internet sources are preferred to traditional media as sources of information [14]. The internet offers a wealth of opportunities for public communication, many of which allow users high control of message fidelity and so might appeal to the media shy scientist who would otherwise be wary of a journalist misinterpreting their research. Van Eperen and Marincola [15] quote a survey suggesting that scientists are active participants in digital life, with 50% of respondents believing that blogs, discussion groups, online communities and social networking are beneficial to sharing ideas with colleagues. While Holliman [16] (p. 841) argues that “the shift towards a digital, globalised media landscape affords greater levels of interaction and participation to those with access to the web and the skills to produce, distribute, share, archive and retrieve scientific information.” Though this includes scientists, Trench [17] argues that with a few exceptions scientific blogs, for example, have not yet lived up to their potential as a tool to encourage both scientist to scientist and scientist to public communication. More recent research suggests scientists are more likely to use traditional media sources in their own information seeking, but perceive sources such as blogs and social networking to have strong social and political influences [18].

Nisbet and Scheufele [19] highlight the need to take a broad approach to science communication to ensure that scientific information is available to a wide range of audiences, not just those elite audiences who may already have an interest in science. This includes a focus on traditional media, particularly local media and web platforms that may reach non-traditional science audiences. However, this should not be seen as a ‘re-branding’ exercise or continuation of the deficit model, where the public is seen as an empty vessel to be filled with information, but an opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with media and wider publics. As Nisbet and Scheufele [19] (p. 1776) warn, “anytime public engagement is defined, perceived, and implemented as a top-down persuasion campaign, then public trust is put at risk.” Such scholars therefore caution approaches which could be perceived as simply public relations exercises.

Within this framework, this research explored the ways that researchers whose work has featured in one news service use the opportunities afforded by the internet, social and traditional media to disseminate their research findings, how these have changed and whether they make further use of materials provided by the news service.

Impact of media coverage

Researchers were asked about the impact, in terms of contact from different groups, of their research being featured in the policy focused news alert, traditional media (print and broadcast media) or social media (Figure 1). Overall, 56% (n=84) of researchers featured in SfEP had been contacted by someone, compared with 93% who had coverage in traditional media (it should be noted that this percentage was influenced by the high degree of journalistic contact) and 72% (n=26) who had experienced coverage in social media. Traditional media remain an excellent source of further contact with others. However, when contact was explored in detail, the data suggest that social media and specialist news services such as SfEP are also modestly emerging as methods for promoting contact.

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Figure 1. Contact as a result of research featuring in different media.

Different media options included Science for Environment Policy, traditional media and social media. Respondents could select more than one category.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084339.g001

Not surprisingly, being featured in Science for Environment Policy is likely to result in contact from policymakers, a quarter of respondents had been contacted by this group (n=36, 26%) or researchers (n=65, 46%), reflecting the readership of the publication. The traditional media, in addition to the contact it brokers with journalists, is also a good source for contact with other researchers (n=47, 62%), as well as more predictably members of the public (n=42, 55%). This of course, does not mean that social media has no effect, and the small number of respondents that were using social media to disseminate their work suggested some clear outcomes. Almost half (n=17, 47%) that were using social media had been in contact with other researchers, and 28% (n=10) had been in contact with a member of the public via that route.

Within this limited dataset there were no clear trends regarding use of traditional and social media, related to the type of institution (e.g. EU, academia, industry etc.) where the researcher worked. Similarly only limited data could be drawn out around specific country and likelihood to use traditional and social media. However when country based data were re-coded to take a regional perspective, two key observations were made (Table 1). Firstly, researchers in Northern Europe appeared most likely to be ‘seeking’ traditional media coverage, 61% (n=22) of researchers from Northern Europe sought coverage of this type. From a social media perspective however it was the Southern and Northern European countries that were more dominant, with just over 20% of researchers seeking such dissemination. Western European researchers appeared to place less focus on seeking dissemination, with just over half (n=19) of researchers based in these countries seeking traditional media coverage, and 16% (n=6) actively using social media. Though it would be interesting to examine trends in Eastern Europe, the minimal data collected from these countries limited this option.

We explored the types of contact promoted by different types of media (Table 2), to understand the nature of these impacts. 63 respondents, just over 40%, recorded a more specific outcome from their work featuring in SfEP. The most likely outcome, at almost half of the respondents who had experienced further impacts, was discussion of research with other researchers (n=31), however it was also notable that 44% (n=28) had seen the reporting picked up via social media. It is likely that some of this social media comment would be traced back to activities undertaken by SfEP (e.g. @SfEP Twitter feed), but is noteworthy nonetheless. In addition, in contrast to the traditional and social media, coverage in SfEP appeared to be generating a diversity of outcomes, in that 19% (n=12) reported other outcomes in the additional comments section (e.g. mentioned in Departmental News, formed the basis of a press release, generated contact for media coverage). This suggests that whilst SfEP is having a relatively similar impact to more traditional media routes, there are perhaps other aspects of diversity in terms of the types of interest that coverage is generating.

67 respondents, 88% of those whose work had featured in the traditional media, reported additional outcomes. In general, levels of outcome were high via traditional media routes, with around half of respondents reporting outcomes across most of the categories. As might be anticipated the traditional media routes remained high in attracting public attention at 63% (n=42), closely followed by prompting discussion of the research with other researchers (n=41, 61%). There was also a sense that featuring in the traditional media is further disseminated via social media routes, as over half (n=39, 58%) of the survey respondents had seen their work referred to in social media after it had featured in traditional media coverage.

In terms of dissemination that first appeared within social media, 22 respondents discussed further outcomes from that setting. Here the most notable aspect related to its potential for further dissemination, 77% (n=17) reported that it had led to an invite to write for a newspaper or magazine, far higher than this outcome via SfEP or the traditional media route, and similarly there was a good likelihood that other social media would refer to the research (n=12, 54%).

Reuse of news alert materials

Researchers whose work is featured in Science for Environment Policy are invited to make further use of the news alert articles produced by the service. On publication in the service, researchers are sent a copy of the published article, a link to its location on the news service website and an invitation to further distribute or otherwise reuse the material.

Overall, 30% (n=44) of researchers reported reusing information produced by the news alert service for dissemination purposes. We asked these researchers to give examples of the ways they were reusing material. A range of ‘repurposing’ of information was undertaken by the researchers responding to the survey. For example, researchers had used the information in presentations (n=4), to support a funding bid (n=2), posted it on social media (n=2), used it in press releases and printed and distributed details at a public meeting (n=1). One researcher reported using the information in an impact statement, either as part of the research excellence framework assessment undertaken in the UK or in an application for research council funding. In addition, researchers had distributed the content to people outside their institution (n=16).

When we compared the researchers further disseminating their information, with those that were also seeking traditional and social media coverage, there were only moderate trends. 62% (n=26) of those further disseminating their SfEP coverage were also seeking traditional media coverage, and 28% (n=12) disseminating SfEP work were also pursuing social media dissemination. This would suggest that it is not necessarily the case that ‘active’ disseminators are mapped across all three categories, and that researchers may be selective or limited in the opportunities they pursue. However, as the numbers indicate this was only a moderate amount of re-purposing overall.

Changes in dissemination routes

We were also interested to explore how researchers were disseminating their research to academic and non-academic audiences and whether there had been any changes in this, from their perspective, over the last five years. It is perhaps useful to start from the context of those dissemination routes with which researchers were not particularly engaging. In 2012, many researchers were not using social media to reach academic audiences (Figure 2). In particular, researchers report that they do not use Twitter (n=106, 79%), Blogs (n=88, 65%) or mass media (n=75, 56%) to promote their research to other academics. This is perhaps not surprising, given that specialist media (e.g. academic journals) exist specifically to reach this group.

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Figure 2. Dissemination Routes to Academic Audiences that are ‘Never Used’ by number.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084339.g002

In relation to academic audiences, researchers perceived that they had increased the use of academic journal publication (n=70, 51%), face-to-face dissemination (such as conference presentations) (n=44, 32%) and linking to specialist news services, like SfEP (n=37, 27%). This likely reflects that peer-reviewed journal and conference publications remain a mainstay of academic dissemination, but additionally the likelihood that dissemination via such routes continues to increase as a researcher advances in their academic career. Therefore the perceived increase in the use of these tools may be reflective of changes in a researcher’s prominence over time, rather than variation in their value within the academic community. Use of specialist news services is also reflective of the route which was used to survey researchers, and their awareness of such opportunities following engagement with SfEP.

With regards to non-academic audiences we were also interested to examine any possible changes in dissemination, particularly in the context of an increase in interest in this type of activity from external agents (e.g. funders) and general discourses around encouraging researchers to engage with broader publics. It is notable that slightly fewer respondents answered this series of questions, with 132 completing responses, 89% of the sample. Again it is useful to look initially at the sources which were not in popular use. For the majority of researchers, there has been little change in the use of media to communicate with non-academic audiences over the past five years. As Table 3 indicates social media are rarely used as a means for communicating with non-academics, 73% (n=97) never used Twitter, 64% (n=84) never used blogs and 51% (n=67) never use online news forums. When comparing the use of these media as tools to communicate with academic and non-academic audiences, it is apparent that the majority of researchers do not find these to be suitable tools for disseminating their research. Those that were not using social media to communicate with academic audiences were also not using them to communicate with non-academic audiences. In addition, it was notable that a large number of respondents did not use mainstream media such as television and radio (n=51, 39%) or newspapers (n=44, 30%) to disseminate their research.

Face-to-face communication is used by a majority of respondents and around 27% (n=36) indicate an increase in face-to-face contact with non-specialist audiences. Combining the categories of ‘increasing use’, and ‘about the same’ it is clear that face-to-face communication is one of the most likely means for non-academic dissemination, at 74% (n=99). Similarly when combining these two response categories, a majority of respondents make use of their press office for dissemination (62%, n=82). As the press office most likely produces a media release aimed at mass media (newspapers, TV, radio and other print media), it is worth noting that this figure is still consistent with a large minority of researchers who never use mass media to communicate with non-academic audiences (e.g. 39% who do not use TV or radio and 30% who do not use newspapers). Furthermore, what these data do not tell us is how frequent these interactions are, and that is also worthy of further exploration.

Outcomes of research dissemination

Within the questionnaire we took the opportunity to ask researchers about their views towards the potential outcomes of their work featuring in news services like SfEP. Here a number of possible outcomes were viewed as ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ positively by researchers (Table 4). It should be again noted that the sampling method may have positively influenced responses to this question, but the connection to the service provided a tangible example to explore the aspirations and reach of this small group of researchers.

Researchers were most positive about the possibility of news services such as SfEP bringing their research to the attention of people in important organisations (n=118, 85%). However news services such as SfEP also offer the potential to reach beyond regional and national borders and these were seen to be favourable outcomes for 83% (n=115) of the researchers responding to these questions. 83% (n=116) were also positive around it helping their research to reach policymakers, closely followed by 80% (n=111) of respondents who were positive towards it enabling members of the public to learn about their research and it providing a route to original publications.

In general researchers were positive about services such as SfEP disseminating their research to policymakers, organisations and the public despite the recognition amongst large numbers that this could also open themselves up for criticism, approximately 65% (n=90 to 91) of researchers responded that it could open their research to criticism from policymakers or members of the public and other scientists. Finally, it was notable that very few researchers made a connection between such opportunities for dissemination and research funding. Just 34% (n=48) responded positively that having their research featured in a news service like SfEP could help them to obtain funding, suggesting that very few researchers are making any connection between the profile of their work, its impact and the potential for future funding and support.