The Role of Online Communication in Building Confidence in Medical Knowledge
With online media, and especially with the offerings of the “web 2.0” or “social web”, the relation of experts and laypersons changes in public communication on scientific information: new arenas of knowledge transfer emerge on the internet (e.g. expert public sphere, collaborative public sphere, personal public sphere). Using the example of medical information, the question is pursued which role the different communication arenas take in building confidence in medical knowledge. By means of group discussions with cancer patients and their relatives and a representative survey it is examined how medical laypersons build confidence in medical knowledge with the help of various information and communication offerings, and which indicators and recipient-related and situational factors affect this confidence.
Supplementary case studies are planned for a follow-up project in order to examine the specific mechanisms of selection and presentation of medicinal knowledge, as well as users’ situational dealings with such online-based arenas.
The project is a part of the DFG’s (German Research Foundation) special priority programme “Science and the General Public: Understanding Fragile and Conflicting Scientific Evidence” (SPP 1409).
Lectures
“Delphi-Runde: Digitale Wissenschaftskommunikation – Drei Generationen der Mediennutzung” [Delphi-Circle: Digital Science Communication – Three Generations of Media Use], participation of J. Schmidt in a panel discussion of the Cultural Sciences Institute (KWI) and the German Historical Institute Paris in Essen on 15 February 2011.
"Die Rolle der Onlinekommunikation bei der Herstellung von Vertrauen in medizinisches Wissen" [The Role of Online Communication in Building Confidence in Medical Knowledge], lecture by J. Voth at the symposium "Expertise, Glaubwürdigkeit und Konflikte: Herausforderungen im Umgang mit dem Internet als Informationsquelle" [Expertise, Credibility and Conflicts: Challenges of Dealing with the Internet as a Source of Information] at the conference of the working group Empirische Pädagogische Forschung [Empirical Pedagogic Research] in Jena on 14 September 2010.
"Die Rolle der Onlinekommunikation bei der Herstellung von Vertrauen" [The Role of Online Communication in Building Confidence], lecture by J. Schmidt at the symposium "Die Ernährungswissenschaft im Scheinwerferlicht der Öffentlichkeit" [Nutritional Science in the Public Spotlight] in Göttingen on 12 January 2010.
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