Sciencing the story : methodological approaches to studying the use of narrative in science communication

As scientists increase their engagement with the public, it has become clear that traditional modes of engagement are no longer sufficient to help us solve the complex scientific and environmental issues of the day. The deficit model, in which there is a one-way transmission of scientific knowledge from scientists to the public, has been critiqued, and scientists are now being urged to be more engaged with their audiences and participate in two-way communication. Narrative is one approach that scholars are advocating for to foster this dialogue. While narrative approaches to science communication appear promising, there is limited empirical research into the impacts of narrative modes of communication about scientific issues. What narrative is, how to measure it, and how to measure its impacts are all relatively undeveloped in the field of science communication.In this dissertation I describe the current state of the science regarding narrative in science communication, and then develop and test approaches to studying the integration of narrative in the dialogue of science communication. In the first paper I conduct systematic reviews to understand how narrative is being defined and measured across scientific fields. This helps to create a foundational understanding of what scientists think narrative means and how it can be measured. The results suggest that many scientists do not explicitly or implicitly define narrative. Additionally, scholars primarily measure narrative in one of three ways: stylistically, structurally, or intuitively. I argue that for the field of science communication to have a more robust understanding of the function of narrative, it must take a systematic approach to defining, identifying, and measuring narrative. In the second paper I develop and test a novel methodological approach to testing the impacts of narrative on comprehension and recall of scientific information. The results from this study suggest that narrative may in fact be distracting if the communication goal is to increase consumers' recall and comprehension of scientific information. In the third chapter I explore how a community can use narrative to relate their research and lived experiences to scientists in the context of a dialogue approach to communication. This research demonstrates how participatory modeling can give communities a way to structure their thoughts, develop recovery actions, and communicate with those in charge of crisis recovery efforts. By providing a synthesis of the field and methodological recommendations, this dissertation helps develop a theoretical and empirical foundation for continued research into the uses of narrative in science communication.