社会争议事件中公众对媒体上科学家的信任研究——以中国“PX”系列事件为例

Research on the Public Trust in Scientists on the Media under Social Controversy:Take the “PX” Series Events in China as an Example

在大科学时代,公众是否信任科学家已成为一个重要的问题。可以中国“PX”系列事件为例,通过内容分析法对公众在微博上的相关评论开展调研,并探讨信任和不信任态度产生的原因。结果显示,公众对媒体上科学家的态度整体上呈不信任的状态,其原因主要与科学家自身和科学家阐述的内容有关。基于巴伯的信任框架,研究发现,公众对媒体上科学家能够代表公众利益的期望要高于对技术能力的期望。因此,提高公众对媒体上科学家的信任程度需要科学家更好地承担社会责任,并与媒体开展更加有效的合作。

In the era of “Big Science”,public trust in scientists has become an important social issue.Based on the case of “PX” events in China,this paper adopted method of content analysis to investigate the comments,related with the news about “PX” on Weibo,in order to explore the reasons of public trust and distrust in scientists.The results showed that public mainly held the attitude of distrust in the scientists on the media,which was related with scientists themselves and the contents they displayed on media.Based on Barber’s analysis framework,this paper found that public expected scientists to be on behalf of public benefit more than to show better expertise in science.Therefore,scientists need to consider how to better take social responsibility and cooperate with media in order to improve public trust in scientists on the media.