Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal

Expanding access: The effectiveness of online science events in attracting a wider audience (page 52)
Ikuta, C.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and science communicators experienced a rapid and unprecedented transformation from in-person to online science communication activities. One of the advantages of online activities is now considered to be the ability to include a broader range of people in scientific activities, including women and ethnic minorities. In this report, we quantify the impact of the in-person or online communication mode on the registrants’ and attendees' demographics and discuss the potential of engaging a broader range of people at online science events. Hosting online public lectures and analysing survey results for the registrations and attendees, we find the age distribution of the attendees showcases a much higher fraction of teens and younger participants compared with an in-person case. The result also demonstrates that the fraction of female participants was higher in the online lectures. Our survey results suggest that an online public lecture allows us to reach more young people in their teens and twenties, as well as those underrepresented in STEM, such as women. We also found that providing the online recorded video was essential to sharing scientific stories with a broader audience.

Suggested Citation (APA)
Ikuta, C. (2024). Expanding access: The effectiveness of online science events in attracting a wider audience. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, 35, 52-58. https://www.capjournal.org/issues/35/35_52.pdf