Moody College of Communication, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Nat Nanotechnol. 2014 Oct;9(10):841-4. doi: 10.1038/nnano.2014.194. Epub 2014 Sep 14.
The American public remains unfamiliar with nanotechnology despite more than a decade of investment and development. Nanoscientists have an opportunity to contribute to public conversations about their work, and its potential implications, through their engagement with lay audiences and media professionals. Indeed, the leaderships of many professional scientific organizations have placed a renewed focus on the public communication of science, particularly in the light of drastic changes in the information landscape and the increasing politicization of many technological and scientific issues. However, we have a limited understanding of nanoscientists' perceptions and behaviours regarding their participation in public communication. Here, we report survey results that provide an examination of the public communication behaviours of nanoscientists affiliated with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), an integrated partnership of US research institutions designed to facilitate nanoscale research and development. Our results suggest that nanoscientists are relatively frequent public communicators who commonly associate their communication efforts with positive impacts on their professional success. We also identify a handful of characteristics that drive nanoscientists' intentions to communicate with the public about nanotechnology.
尽管已经进行了十多年的投资和开发，但美国公众仍然对纳米技术不熟悉。纳米科学家有机会通过与普通受众和媒体专业人士的接触，为公众对他们的工作及其潜在影响的讨论做出贡献。事实上，许多专业科学组织的领导层已经重新关注科学的公众传播，尤其是考虑到信息格局的巨大变化，以及许多技术和科学问题的日益政治化。然而，我们对纳米科学家对参与公众传播的看法和行为的了解有限。在这里，我们报告了一项调查结果，该结果对隶属于美国国家科学基金会（NSF）国家纳米技术基础设施网络（NNIN）的纳米科学家的公众传播行为进行了考察，这是一个由美国研究机构组成的综合合作关系，旨在促进纳米级研究和开发。我们的研究结果表明，纳米科学家是相对频繁的公众传播者，他们通常将自己的传播努力与对其专业成功的积极影响联系起来。我们还确定了一些特征，这些特征推动了纳米科学家与公众就纳米技术进行交流的意愿。
