Since its launch in 2018, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing social media applications in the world, being particularly popular among young people. Memetic videos, which often feature lip-syncing, dance routines, and comedic skits, are a defining feature of the platform. This study used quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis to examine science memes, an increasingly popular genre of memes on TikTok, by analyzing 1,368 TikTok videos that feature science-related content. The results of the study uncover the most influential science-content creators, the most prevalent content in science memes, and three vernacular styles of science memes on TikTok. The results expand the existing science-communication scholarship focusing on the context of social media. Understanding the role of memetic science content on short-video platforms, as well as in the youth digital culture in general, also provides valuable insights into how science communicators can better engage with members of the young generation.

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Reposting “Till Albert Einstein is TikTok Famous”: The Memetic Construction of Science on TikTok

This study aimed to map and characterize public engagement with science on YouTube A two-part study was conducted First, we collected and quantitatively analyzed trending videos on YouTube to evaluate the magnitude of public interaction with science content Then, we assessed actual, rather than self-reports of, media interactions with science-related YouTube trending videos We tested associations between behavioral engagement of viewing, liking, disliking or commenting, and emotional and cognitive engagement Our findings affirm that science content attracts high public interest and that emotional and cognitive engagement with science on social media are distinct, but interrelated We show that regardless of the valence of emotional engagement, emotion is linked to greater behavioral engagement of posting comments and to greater cognitive engagement of argumentative deliberation Therefore, our findings suggest that social media interactions, which tend to evoke emotional responses, are a promising means of advancing person-to-person engagement with science

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963662521990848

Interactions between emotional and cognitive engagement with science on YouTube

Many urgent problems that societies currently face – from climate change to a global pandemic – require citizens to engage with scientific information as members of democratic societies as well as to solve problems in their personal lives. Most often, to solve their epistemic aims (aims directed at achieving knowledge and understanding) regarding such socio-scientific issues, individuals search for information online, where there exists a multitude of possibly relevant and highly interconnected sources of different perspectives, sometimes providing conflicting information. The paper provides a review of the literature aimed at identifying (a) constraints and affordances that scientific knowledge and the online information environment entail and (b) individuals’ cognitive and motivational processes that have been found to hinder, or conversely, support practices of engagement (such as critical information evaluation or two-sided dialogue). Doing this, a conceptual framework for understanding and fostering what we call online engagement with scientific information is introduced, which is conceived as consisting of individual engagement (engaging on one’s own in the search, selection, evaluation, and integration of information) and dialogic engagement (engaging in discourse with others to interpret, articulate and critically examine scientific information). In turn, this paper identifies individual and contextual conditions for individuals’ goal-directed and effortful online engagement with scientific information.

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Constraints and Affordances of Online Engagement With Scientific Information-A Literature Review.

Just before the European election in May 2019 a YouTube video titled The Destruction of the CDU (Rezo, 2019a) caused political controversy in Germany The video by the popular German YouTuber Rezo attacked the conservative Government party CDU ( Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ) mainly for climate inaction As a reaction to the subsequent attacks on Rezo and his video from the political establishment an alliance of popular German YouTubers formed to release a second video In this video, the YouTubers asked their followers not to vote for the Government or the far-right parties, because they would ignore the expertise of scientists and the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change and therefore be unable to provide sustainable solutions for the future This debate started as a YouTube phenomenon but quickly evolved into a national public discussion that took place across various social media channels, blogs, newspapers, and TV news, but also eg, in discussions in schools, churches, as well as arts and cultural events The focus of this contribution is on the formation of the heterogeneous coalition that emerged to defend and support the YouTubers It prominently involved scientists and scientific expertise, but other forms of expertise and ‘worlds of relevance’ were also part of this coalition The conceptual tools of ‘networked expertise’ and ‘ethno-epistemic assemblages’ are employed to explore expertise and credibility as well as the associations and networks of actors involved which illuminate how a single YouTuber was able to contribute to the unleashing of a national debate on climate change policy

/pdf/rezo-and-german-climate-change-policy-the-influence-of-96o21opbpn.pdf

Rezo and German Climate Change Policy: The Influence of Networked Expertise on YouTube and Beyond

Internet technologies and specifically social media have drastically changed science communication. The public no longer merely consume science-related information but participate (for example, by rating and disseminating) and generate their own content. Likewise, scientists are no longer dependent on journalists as gatekeepers to spreading relevant information. This paper identifies and reflects on relevant theoretical strands that help to inform theoretical frameworks and research agendas. Therefore, we discuss the technological structures and resulting affordances, a new knowledge order and its actors, as well as trust and rationality as important constructs.

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Public online engagement with science information: on the road to a theoretical framework and a future research agenda

Due to the rise of the Internet, the effects of different science communication formats in which experts appear cannot be neglected in communication research. Through their emotional and more comprehensible communication ‘sciencetubers’—who frequently differ from the stereotypical image of scientists as white, old men—may have a considerable effect on the public’s perceived trustworthiness of scientists as well as their trust in science. Thus, this study aims to extend trust and trustworthiness research to consider the role of emotion in science communication in the context of emerging online video content. Therefore, perceived trustworthiness was examined in an experimental online survey of 155 people aged 18–80. We considered different potential influencing variables for trustworthiness (expertise, integrity, benevolence) and used six different video stimuli about physics featuring scientific experts. The video stimuli varied according to format (TV interviews vs. YouTube videos), gender (male vs. female), and age of the experts depicted (old vs. young). The results suggest that: (1) Scientific experts appearing in TV interviews are perceived as more competent but not higher in integrity or benevolence than sciencetubers—while scientists interviewed on TV are regarded as typical scientists, sciencetubers stand out for their highly professional communication abilities (being entertaining and comprehensible); (2) these emotional assessments of scientists are important predictors of perceived trustworthiness; and (3) significantly mediate the effect of the stimulus (TV interview vs. YouTube video) on all dimensions of perceived trustworthiness of scientific experts.

Markus Schäfer

Papers

Why Are Scientific Experts Perceived as Trustworthy?: Emotional Assessment within TV and YouTube Videos