Alex Bridget, Ji Jenny, Flad Rowan
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
SAPIENS Magazine, New York, NY, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jul 4;11(27):eadt5435. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adt5435. Epub 2025 Jul 2.
Mass media represents a primary avenue for research to reach diverse publics, but relatively few peer-reviewed scientific papers become popular science news. Numerous gatekeepers determine which research manuscripts complete this dissemination pathway, and the resulting media landscape influences public understandings of scientific fields. Here, we compare scientific and popular publishing of archaeology about different geographic regions. Of 1155 archaeology papers in one specialist and six general science journals across 6 years, 32% were reported by at least one of 15 US news sources. Mixed-effects logistic regression models revealed variation across news sources, but overall papers about archaeology in United Kingdom, Israel/Palestine, and Australia were significantly more likely to receive coverage, compared to China/Taiwan. This disparity raises concerns as archaeology influences notions of identity and cultural achievement, and has been misappropriated by racist, nationalist ideologies. We recommend ways for actors in research dissemination to diversify archaeology coverage.
大众媒体是研究成果向不同公众传播的主要途径，但经过同行评审的科学论文中只有相对较少的一部分能成为科普新闻。众多把关人决定了哪些研究手稿能够走完这条传播路径，而最终形成的媒体格局会影响公众对科学领域的理解。在这里，我们比较了关于不同地理区域的考古学在科学出版和大众出版方面的情况。在6年时间里，1555篇发表于1本专业期刊和6本综合科学期刊上的考古学论文中，有32%至少被15家美国新闻媒体中的一家报道过。混合效应逻辑回归模型揭示了不同新闻媒体之间的差异，但总体而言，与关于中国/台湾地区的考古学论文相比，关于英国、以色列/巴勒斯坦以及澳大利亚的考古学论文获得报道的可能性要显著高得多。这种差异令人担忧，因为考古学影响着身份认同和文化成就的观念，且一直被种族主义、民族主义意识形态所挪用。我们为研究传播中的相关人员提供了一些方法，以实现考古学报道的多样化。
