Disseminating Research News in HCI: Perceived Hazards, How-To's, and Opportunities for Innovation
This addresses communication challenges for HCI researchers disseminating findings to the public, but it is incremental as it builds on existing media studies.
The study investigated how HCI researchers perceive miscommunication of their work in mass media, identifying four origins of issues in the Media Production Pipeline and resulting in strategies for effective communication.
Mass media afford researchers critical opportunities to disseminate research findings and trends to the general public. Yet researchers also perceive that their work can be miscommunicated in mass media, thus generating unintended understandings of HCI research by the general public. We conduct a Grounded Theory analysis of interviews with 12 HCI researchers and find that miscommunication can occur at four origins along the socio-technical infrastructure known as the Media Production Pipeline (MPP) for science news. Results yield researchers' perceived hazards of disseminating their work through mass media, as well as strategies for fostering effective communication of research. We conclude with implications for augmenting or innovating new MPP technologies.