Medialization of science and its effects on scientists' public engagemen

Scientists' perception of the power of media to influence public opinion and scientists' own work has important implications for the relationship of science with society. The medialization of science thesis suggests that scientists tend to seek increased media visibility in order to gain public legitimacy or support because they think visibility will lead audiences to believe that the sciences they are engaged in is important and relevant to the public. In this dissertation, the medialization of science thesis guides my interpretation of the phenomena I observed in my research. Through an analysis of neuroscientists' mental models, I found that the neuroscientists interviewed associate media visibility with public support and resource allocation for their research and that they perceive social media such as Facebook as playing an important role in public visibility. A survey of biomedical scientists in five countries further suggested that scientists who are more aware of the influential role of public visibility are more likely to participate in both mediated public communication and public engagement activities. Through content analysis of crowdfunding webpages and survey of scientists who sought public financing for their research via crowdfunding, I also demonstrated that crowdfunded scientists experience a strong medialization of science phenomenon and are highly "medialized." These scientists utilized a wide range of communication strategies to achieve success in crowdfunding. The crowdfunded scientists' perceptions of media influence were associated with their motives for participating in crowdfunding. The more the scientists believed in the influence of the media, the more likely they were to perceive increasing public visibility and public legitimacy as important motives for crowdfunding. Building on the literature on the "medialization of science," the findings of this dissertation contribute to the budding research on the medialization of science as scientists increasingly turn to new media platforms to disseminate their research. My findings largely replicate the observation of medialization of science as shown in previous studies, and more importantly, extend the scope of medialization research to new media channels such as social media.