Despite numerous calls for improving scientific literacy, many American adults show a lack of understanding of experiments, scientific study, and scientific inquiry.  While much effort is focused on improving scientific literacy in formal education settings, little attention has been paid to the free-choice (informal) learning opportunities that make up the vast majority of an individual's learning.  News media is one important avenue for free-choice science learning and understanding how adults interpret science news could lead to better communication between researchers and the public.  In order to characterize how science is presented in different texts, three types of texts � research articles, press releases and news reports � were studied.  This analysis revealed that the inclusion of a discussion of the limitations of the research is a major difference between these types of science texts, with research articles more likely to include limitations than news reports.  To determine how this difference might affect readers' understanding of science news, staff members and science faculty of a large Midwestern research university read one of two versions of a science news article that differ in the inclusion of a discussion of the limitations of the research.  Participants were interviewed about their understanding of the content of the article, trust in the information presented, perceptions of the significance of the research, and interpretation of the limitations.  Comparisons between groups that read the news article with limitations and groups that read the article without limitations will be presented.

Effect of limitations on public understanding of chemistry research in the news

246th National Meeting (2013)

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