Eric A Jensen
Biographic Data
| ID | 4605382 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eric A Jensen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eric A |
| FAMILY NAME | Jensen |
| SIGNATURE | JENSEN E A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Warwick |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8332-4507 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 26 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How can a research program influence public policy? Evaluating a decade of research impact using an evidence-based theory of change
This study proposes the systematic empirical development of a theory of change for both planning and evaluating research impact on public policy. This use of theory of change is underdeveloped as a retrospective research impact evaluation method, capable of covering long timespans. Here, we assess impact at the level of a UK water research program with a 10-year timeframe. We developed a program-level theory of change from overlapping data source…
Reimagining the language of engagement in a post-stakeholder world
Language matters in shaping perceptions and guiding behaviour. The term stakeholder is widely used, yet little attention is paid to the possibility that its use may inadvertently perpetuate colonial narratives and reinforce systemic inequities. In this article, we critically examine the limitations of the stakeholder concept and its ambiguity, normativity, and exclusionary implications. We emphasise the importance of using language that gives a v…
A New Frontier in Science Communication? What We Know About How Public Audiences Respond to Cinematic Scientific Visualization
Presenting data in visually appealing formats has long been a useful science communication technique. Millions of people around the world have encountered scientific visualizations through documentary films on giant and small screens. Visual effects software from the film industry can increasingly be used to visualize scientific data. Such cinematic scientific visualization should be (a) based on real data, (b) understandable, and (c) entertainin…
Methodological Considerations for Survey-Based Research During Emergencies and Public Health Crises
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has resulted in a massive amount of global research on the social and human dimensions of the disease. Between academic researchers, governments, and polling firms, thousands of survey projects have been launched globally, tracking aspects like public opinion, social impacts, and drivers of disease transmission and mitigation. This deluge of research has created numerous potential risks and problems, incl…
Trajectories of Experience Through the Pandemic
Here, we present a dataset collected within a longitudinal interview study that has been conducted as part of a larger project (i.e., Viral Communication), exploring (changing) public attitudes and behaviours through the course of the pandemic in Germany. From a nationally representative survey, forty participants were purposively sampled on the basis of gender, age and socioeconomic status for the interviews. Each participant was interviewed thr…
Perceptions of the European Space Sector
Space education not only plays a key role in helping young people understand the natural world and their impact on the planet but is also vital in ensuring that future generations can make meaningful contributions to the space sector at all levels. Positive perceptions of the space sector can lead young people to take roles where they can contribute to new knowledge, develop new technologies, and tackle societal challenges. As the relationship be…
What Drives Belief in Vaccination Conspiracy Theories in Germany
In the midst of a pandemic, the efficacy of official measures to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis largely depends on public attitudes towards them, where conspiracy beliefs represent potential threats to the efficacy of measures such as vaccination. Here, we present predictors and outcomes associated with a COVID-19 vaccination conspiracy belief. In a representative survey of Germany, sociodemographic predictors of this belief were found to include a…
A Repeated Measures Dataset on Public Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic
DATA REPORT article Front. Commun., 16 December 2021Sec. Science and Environmental Communication https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.789272
Evidence-Based Science Communication
Effective science communication can empower research and innovation systems to address global challenges and put public interests at the heart of how knowledge is produced, shared, and applied. For science communication to play this mediating role effectively, we propose a more integrated and "evidence-based" approach. This commentary identifies key issues facing the science communication field. It suggests a series of prescriptions, inspired by …
Science Communication
Communication about science is more than 'giving the facts'. In times of global challenges, rapid technological developments and information overload, effective science communication interventions need to be carefully thought through and designed. Science Communication: An Introduction, is a concise, coherent and easily readable textbook about the field of science communication, connecting the practice of science communicators with theory. In the…
Evaluating the impacts of theatre-based wildlife and conservation education at the zoo
The experience of visiting a zoo as a child can be remembered decades later and potentially influences future environmental attitudes. In light of steadily growing criticism of the ethics and value of live animal shows, some zoos are seeking alternative means of delivering ‘edutainment’ to a broad audience. One such alternative is through theatre. We examine whether a family-orientated zoo theatre performance achieved animal knowledge and conserv…
Quantification
Counting has long been a major tool in social science research methodology. In many fields, to understand a phenomenon is to quantify it, to represent both observed and latent qualities through numerical quantities. Yet the process of quantification is not easy or simple: It requires careful thought, planning, and a skeptical mind‐set. The quantification process involves converting qualitative phenomena into numbers, operationalization, and the a…
Critical review of the United Kingdom’s “gold standard” survey of public attitudes to science
Since 2000, the UK government has funded surveys aimed at understanding the UK public’s attitudes toward science, scientists, and science policy. Known as the Public Attitudes to Science series, these surveys and their predecessors have long been used in UK science communication policy, practice, and scholarship as a source of authoritative knowledge about science-related attitudes and behaviors. Given their importance and the significant public …
Why people attend science festivals
As a form of public engagement, science festivals have rapidly expanded in size and number over recent years. However, as with other domains of informal public engagement that are not linked to policy outcomes, existing research does not fully address science festivals’ impacts and popularity. This study adduces evidence from surveys and focus groups to elucidate the perspectives of visitors at a large UK science festival. Results show that visit…
Cloning wild life
Reconsidering The Love of Art
Art museums have long been identified as bastions of social and cultural exclusion. This conclusion was best evidenced by the large-scale 1967 French study by Bourdieu and Darbel demonstrating the exclusionary nature of The Love of Art. However, in recent years there have been increasing efforts to reach out to a broader range of visitors beyond conventional audiences. The present study investigates the impacts of an outreach program at a U.K. ar…
Mediating subpolitics in US and UK science news
The development of therapeutic cloning research sparked a scientific controversy pitting patients’ hopes for cures against religious and anti-abortion opposition. The present study investigates this controversy by examining the production and content of Anglo-American print media coverage of the branch of embryonic stem cell research known as “therapeutic cloning.” Data collection included press articles about therapeutic cloning ( n = 5,185) and…
Culture and Social Change
This book brings together social sciencists to create an interdisciplinary dialogue on the topic of social change as a cultural process. Culture is as much about novelty as it is about tradition, as much about change as it is about stability. This dynamic tension is analyzed in collective protests, intergroup dynamics, language, mass media, science, community participation, art, and social transitions to capitalism, among others contexts. These d…
Dialogue and Synthesis
This brief synthesis presents the main points of agreement between Dawson and Jensen's article, “‘Towards a ‘Contextual Turn’ in Visitor Studies: Evaluating Visitor Segmentation and Identity-Related Motivations” (this issue) and Falk's reply, “Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model” (this issue), and it highlights important considerations for future research
Towards A Contextual Turn in Visitor Studies
This article assesses the use of audience segmentation in visitor studies by analyzing its application in the identity model of visitors proposed by J. Falk (2009) and J. Falk et al. (2007). As a leading example of visitor segmentation, the authors examine this model's application in a specific case at U.S. zoos to elaborate some of its limitations. Conventional short-term, episodic approaches to visitor research should be challenged and suppleme…
Celebrity life politics in US and UK journalistic coverage of therapeutic cloning research
This study investigates the role of celebrity life politics in American and British press coverage of therapeutic cloning. A large sample of articles in the US press and both elite and tabloid UK newspapers and periodicals was collected and analyzed for this study. The present analysis focuses on activist patients as key news sources in this coverage. These patients drew upon narratives of personal suffering with political implications that inter…
Between credulity and scepticism
For years Anglo-American news media participated in hyping claims of imminent cures from therapeutic cloning. This hype was scrutinized following the scientific fraud of South Korean therapeutic cloning researcher Hwang Woo-Suk. The scandal left questions about contemporary science journalists' commitment to the ideals of the press as fourth estate or watchdog. The present study adduces data from qualitative interviews with Anglo-American journal…
Continuing Commentary
Castro and Batel's (2008) study points to some important strategies of resistance to social change in the transformation of transcendent to immanent representations. We contextualize this study within a broader cyclical model of social change, in which their focus is one of the four phases in the cycle. The expanded model is exemplified in the shifting representations of science communication in the UK from the `deficit model' of public understan…
The Dao of human cloning
The issue of human cloning has featured in the national science policy agendas in both the United States and the United Kingdom since the announcement in 1997 of Dolly the cloned sheep's birth in Scotland. Such news stories suggesting the imminent cloning of humans have inspired fictional entertainment media over the years, including numerous popular films. Study 1 examines elite British press coverage of human cloning from 1997 to 2004 ( n = 857…
Abortion rhetoric in American news coverage of the human cloning debate
The issue of human cloning has received intense media and political attention since the cloning of Dolly the sheep was announced in 1997. This research explores the discursive basis for support and opposition to human cloning by examining the role of abortion-related rhetoric in constructing the concept of human cloning within the American press. An in-depth content analysis of human cloning news coverage was conducted on a sample of articles col…
Reimagining the language of engagement in a post-stakeholder world
Language matters in shaping perceptions and guiding behaviour. The term stakeholder is widely used, yet little attention is paid to the possibility that its use may inadvertently perpetuate colonial narratives and reinforce systemic inequities. In this article, we critically examine the limitations of the stakeholder concept and its ambiguity, normativity, and exclusionary implications. We emphasise the importance of using language that gives a v…
Continuing Commentary
Castro and Batel's (2008) study points to some important strategies of resistance to social change in the transformation of transcendent to immanent representations. We contextualize this study within a broader cyclical model of social change, in which their focus is one of the four phases in the cycle. The expanded model is exemplified in the shifting representations of science communication in the UK from the `deficit model' of public understan…
Evaluating the impacts of theatre-based wildlife and conservation education at the zoo
The experience of visiting a zoo as a child can be remembered decades later and potentially influences future environmental attitudes. In light of steadily growing criticism of the ethics and value of live animal shows, some zoos are seeking alternative means of delivering ‘edutainment’ to a broad audience. One such alternative is through theatre. We examine whether a family-orientated zoo theatre performance achieved animal knowledge and conserv…
Cloning wild life
Trajectories of Experience Through the Pandemic
Here, we present a dataset collected within a longitudinal interview study that has been conducted as part of a larger project (i.e., Viral Communication), exploring (changing) public attitudes and behaviours through the course of the pandemic in Germany. From a nationally representative survey, forty participants were purposively sampled on the basis of gender, age and socioeconomic status for the interviews. Each participant was interviewed thr…
Between credulity and scepticism
For years Anglo-American news media participated in hyping claims of imminent cures from therapeutic cloning. This hype was scrutinized following the scientific fraud of South Korean therapeutic cloning researcher Hwang Woo-Suk. The scandal left questions about contemporary science journalists' commitment to the ideals of the press as fourth estate or watchdog. The present study adduces data from qualitative interviews with Anglo-American journal…
Language and values in the human cloning debate
Over the last seven years, a major debate has arisen over whether human cloning should remain legal in the United States. Given that this may be the 'first real global and simultaneous news story on biotechnology' (Einsiedel et al., 2002, p.313), nations around the world have struggled with the implications of this newly viable scientific technology, which is often also referred to as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Since the successful cloning of…
Abortion rhetoric in American news coverage of the human cloning debate
The issue of human cloning has received intense media and political attention since the cloning of Dolly the sheep was announced in 1997. This research explores the discursive basis for support and opposition to human cloning by examining the role of abortion-related rhetoric in constructing the concept of human cloning within the American press. An in-depth content analysis of human cloning news coverage was conducted on a sample of articles col…
The Dao of human cloning
The issue of human cloning has featured in the national science policy agendas in both the United States and the United Kingdom since the announcement in 1997 of Dolly the cloned sheep's birth in Scotland. Such news stories suggesting the imminent cloning of humans have inspired fictional entertainment media over the years, including numerous popular films. Study 1 examines elite British press coverage of human cloning from 1997 to 2004 ( n = 857…
Continuing Commentary
Castro and Batel's (2008) study points to some important strategies of resistance to social change in the transformation of transcendent to immanent representations. We contextualize this study within a broader cyclical model of social change, in which their focus is one of the four phases in the cycle. The expanded model is exemplified in the shifting representations of science communication in the UK from the `deficit model' of public understan…
Celebrity life politics in US and UK journalistic coverage of therapeutic cloning research
This study investigates the role of celebrity life politics in American and British press coverage of therapeutic cloning. A large sample of articles in the US press and both elite and tabloid UK newspapers and periodicals was collected and analyzed for this study. The present analysis focuses on activist patients as key news sources in this coverage. These patients drew upon narratives of personal suffering with political implications that inter…
Between credulity and scepticism
For years Anglo-American news media participated in hyping claims of imminent cures from therapeutic cloning. This hype was scrutinized following the scientific fraud of South Korean therapeutic cloning researcher Hwang Woo-Suk. The scandal left questions about contemporary science journalists' commitment to the ideals of the press as fourth estate or watchdog. The present study adduces data from qualitative interviews with Anglo-American journal…
Dialogue and Synthesis
This brief synthesis presents the main points of agreement between Dawson and Jensen's article, “‘Towards a ‘Contextual Turn’ in Visitor Studies: Evaluating Visitor Segmentation and Identity-Related Motivations” (this issue) and Falk's reply, “Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model” (this issue), and it highlights important considerations for future research
Towards A Contextual Turn in Visitor Studies
This article assesses the use of audience segmentation in visitor studies by analyzing its application in the identity model of visitors proposed by J. Falk (2009) and J. Falk et al. (2007). As a leading example of visitor segmentation, the authors examine this model's application in a specific case at U.S. zoos to elaborate some of its limitations. Conventional short-term, episodic approaches to visitor research should be challenged and suppleme…
Mediating subpolitics in US and UK science news
The development of therapeutic cloning research sparked a scientific controversy pitting patients’ hopes for cures against religious and anti-abortion opposition. The present study investigates this controversy by examining the production and content of Anglo-American print media coverage of the branch of embryonic stem cell research known as “therapeutic cloning.” Data collection included press articles about therapeutic cloning ( n = 5,185) and…
Culture and Social Change
This book brings together social sciencists to create an interdisciplinary dialogue on the topic of social change as a cultural process. Culture is as much about novelty as it is about tradition, as much about change as it is about stability. This dynamic tension is analyzed in collective protests, intergroup dynamics, language, mass media, science, community participation, art, and social transitions to capitalism, among others contexts. These d…
Reconsidering The Love of Art
Art museums have long been identified as bastions of social and cultural exclusion. This conclusion was best evidenced by the large-scale 1967 French study by Bourdieu and Darbel demonstrating the exclusionary nature of The Love of Art. However, in recent years there have been increasing efforts to reach out to a broader range of visitors beyond conventional audiences. The present study investigates the impacts of an outreach program at a U.K. ar…
Why people attend science festivals
As a form of public engagement, science festivals have rapidly expanded in size and number over recent years. However, as with other domains of informal public engagement that are not linked to policy outcomes, existing research does not fully address science festivals’ impacts and popularity. This study adduces evidence from surveys and focus groups to elucidate the perspectives of visitors at a large UK science festival. Results show that visit…
Cloning wild life
Quantification
Counting has long been a major tool in social science research methodology. In many fields, to understand a phenomenon is to quantify it, to represent both observed and latent qualities through numerical quantities. Yet the process of quantification is not easy or simple: It requires careful thought, planning, and a skeptical mind‐set. The quantification process involves converting qualitative phenomena into numbers, operationalization, and the a…
Critical review of the United Kingdom’s “gold standard” survey of public attitudes to science
Since 2000, the UK government has funded surveys aimed at understanding the UK public’s attitudes toward science, scientists, and science policy. Known as the Public Attitudes to Science series, these surveys and their predecessors have long been used in UK science communication policy, practice, and scholarship as a source of authoritative knowledge about science-related attitudes and behaviors. Given their importance and the significant public …
Evaluating the impacts of theatre-based wildlife and conservation education at the zoo
The experience of visiting a zoo as a child can be remembered decades later and potentially influences future environmental attitudes. In light of steadily growing criticism of the ethics and value of live animal shows, some zoos are seeking alternative means of delivering ‘edutainment’ to a broad audience. One such alternative is through theatre. We examine whether a family-orientated zoo theatre performance achieved animal knowledge and conserv…
Evidence-Based Science Communication
Effective science communication can empower research and innovation systems to address global challenges and put public interests at the heart of how knowledge is produced, shared, and applied. For science communication to play this mediating role effectively, we propose a more integrated and "evidence-based" approach. This commentary identifies key issues facing the science communication field. It suggests a series of prescriptions, inspired by …
Science Communication
Communication about science is more than 'giving the facts'. In times of global challenges, rapid technological developments and information overload, effective science communication interventions need to be carefully thought through and designed. Science Communication: An Introduction, is a concise, coherent and easily readable textbook about the field of science communication, connecting the practice of science communicators with theory. In the…
Perceptions of the European Space Sector
Space education not only plays a key role in helping young people understand the natural world and their impact on the planet but is also vital in ensuring that future generations can make meaningful contributions to the space sector at all levels. Positive perceptions of the space sector can lead young people to take roles where they can contribute to new knowledge, develop new technologies, and tackle societal challenges. As the relationship be…
What Drives Belief in Vaccination Conspiracy Theories in Germany
In the midst of a pandemic, the efficacy of official measures to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis largely depends on public attitudes towards them, where conspiracy beliefs represent potential threats to the efficacy of measures such as vaccination. Here, we present predictors and outcomes associated with a COVID-19 vaccination conspiracy belief. In a representative survey of Germany, sociodemographic predictors of this belief were found to include a…
A Repeated Measures Dataset on Public Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic
DATA REPORT article Front. Commun., 16 December 2021Sec. Science and Environmental Communication https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.789272
A New Frontier in Science Communication? What We Know About How Public Audiences Respond to Cinematic Scientific Visualization
Presenting data in visually appealing formats has long been a useful science communication technique. Millions of people around the world have encountered scientific visualizations through documentary films on giant and small screens. Visual effects software from the film industry can increasingly be used to visualize scientific data. Such cinematic scientific visualization should be (a) based on real data, (b) understandable, and (c) entertainin…
Methodological Considerations for Survey-Based Research During Emergencies and Public Health Crises
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has resulted in a massive amount of global research on the social and human dimensions of the disease. Between academic researchers, governments, and polling firms, thousands of survey projects have been launched globally, tracking aspects like public opinion, social impacts, and drivers of disease transmission and mitigation. This deluge of research has created numerous potential risks and problems, incl…
Trajectories of Experience Through the Pandemic
Here, we present a dataset collected within a longitudinal interview study that has been conducted as part of a larger project (i.e., Viral Communication), exploring (changing) public attitudes and behaviours through the course of the pandemic in Germany. From a nationally representative survey, forty participants were purposively sampled on the basis of gender, age and socioeconomic status for the interviews. Each participant was interviewed thr…
Reimagining the language of engagement in a post-stakeholder world
Language matters in shaping perceptions and guiding behaviour. The term stakeholder is widely used, yet little attention is paid to the possibility that its use may inadvertently perpetuate colonial narratives and reinforce systemic inequities. In this article, we critically examine the limitations of the stakeholder concept and its ambiguity, normativity, and exclusionary implications. We emphasise the importance of using language that gives a v…
Political science (19 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (8 works) · Media studies (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works)