Between Active Seekers and Non-Users: Segments of Science-related Media Usage in Switzerland and Germany

ABSTRACT

Citizens’ attitudes toward science are related to their use of science-related information from various sources. Evidence is scarce regarding citizens’ individual media repertoires for staying informed about science as segmentation studies so far have primarily focused on scientific attitudes. In this paper, we explore audience segments regarding their science-related information behavior and whether such segments are comparable or vary between two countries with similar information environments. Based on two surveys in Switzerland and Germany, we identify national audience segments that differ in their science-related information repertoires, and analyze their sociodemographic characteristics and science-related attitudes. In both countries, we find very comparable information user segments ranging from those who inform themselves frequently about science (“Active Seekers”/“Science Consumers”) to those who hardly get in contact with any information about science and research (“Non-Users”). Those segments which get in contact with information about science frequently show generally more positive attitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• Information use
• segmentation
• survey
• science communication
• Switzerland
• Germany

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Julia Metag http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4328-6419

Notes

1 In the case of Germany, we went up to 14 segments, since 10 segments were not enough to draw a clear conclusion regarding the optimal number of segments (see Supplemental Materials).

2 Respondents were first asked whether they were scientists themselves. If not, they were asked whether they “personally knew a scientist,” “have family members that study or studied at university level,” or “come in contact with science through their work.” Each affirmative answers resulted in one index-point. Scientists were directly assigned four points, resulting in a sum index ranging from 0 to 4.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (1409 “Science and the Public”); Gebert Rüf Stiftung [grant number GRS-025/15]; and Stiftung Mercator Schweiz [grant number 2014-0607].