Online Reader Comments: Bringing a Public into the Public Understanding of Science

• In Event: 262 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02.

Abstract

We contribute to the sociological literature on the public understanding of and attitudes towards science through a content analysis of 2127 online reader comments sent in response to a New York Times article covering the 2015 measles outbreak traced to Disneyland, CA. Our approach allows us to unobtrusively study the collaborative claims made by an interested public as related to the character of scientific knowledge, scientific practices, and the role science should play in resolving important policy disputes. Although considerable attention has been paid to the anti-vaccination movement and parents who are opting out of childhood immunization, little attention has been paid to overwhelming majority of Americans who believe, along with medical and public health officials, that childhood vaccines are safe and effective. Given this demographic reality, it is not surprising that the preponderance of online reader comments to the New York Times expressed a strong pro-vaccine stance. In support of their position these commenters promote scientific authority and denounce vaccine skeptics as anti-science. At the same time, pro-vaccination comments reveal emblematic characteristics of lay ways of knowing and expose the means by which anecdote, emotion, memories and first-hand experience are utilized to counter vaccine skeptics. We argue that this publicly and collaboratively produced amalgam of knowledge exemplifies a civic epistemic authority and we address its parameters and prospects. We argue that reader comments allow us to examine a public understanding and engagement of science from the vantage point of a public, rather than through the lens of expert scrutiny.

Authors

• Kristin Kay Barker, University of New Mexico

• Ryeora Choe, University of New Mexico

• Neil Greene, University of New Mexico

• Alexis M MacLennan, University of New Mexico

• Keith Wilkins, University of New Mexico