SCIENTISTS VS. LAYMEN? – HOW GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD (GMF) IS DISCUSSED ON ZHIHU?

Abstract

Since the commercial sale of genetically modified food (GMF) in the 1990s, there has long been a heated debate over the applications of transgenic technology on agriculture. With the proliferation of the Internet, online platforms have created new possibilities for such public discussions. Although past research has identified the effects of the Internet on scientific communications, the concrete content of online discussion remains largely unexplored. Adopting the dialogue model of science communication, this study proposes a framework that investigates three aspects (i.e., framing, interaction feature, writing style) of the discussion content concerning GMF. Results show that there is no significant attitude difference between scientists and laymen, but they tend to frame GMF from quite different perspectives. Besides, although scientist users are not perfect rationalists, they are more likely to be both high-quality content contributors and active discussion facilitators.