New, Not Different: Data-Driven Perspectives on Science Festival Audiences

Abstract

This commentary explores the kinds of audiences who attend science festivals in the United States by examining data from nearly 10,000 attendees from 24 festivals. Findings are presented to describe festival audiences overall and in comparison to national census and polling data. Results are similar to those for other public science events, with the majority of attendees being well-educated and middle-class. Even so, approximately two thirds of festival-goers are new each year. The findings are discussed in relation to evidence that begins to establish a typology of public science event attendees, and the need to reach “new” versus “different” audiences.

Family-focused campus-based university event increases perceived knowledge, science capital and aspirations across a wide demographic

“…In addition, whilst the events welcome many participants from POLAR4 quintile 1 and quintile 2 areas, there is not proportional attendance of POLAR4 quintile 1 and quintile 2 participants compared to the city region. This is comparable to other public engagement events hosted outside of universities that observe a disproportionately low engagement from those of an ethnic minority background and lower socio-economic groups (Duckett et al, 2021.;Kennedy et al, 2018;Nielsen et al, 2019). Public engagement is vital to allow the public to understand, impact and direct scientific research as well as forming part of the widening participation work of many universities, where students from communities and backgrounds who historically have been unable to completely access higher education are actively encouraged and supported to progress to study and excel at university.…”

“…Despite this shift in innovative event delivery, the promise of increased interaction and engagement with the communities that scientists find harder to reach, through community-based events, often does not materialise. Delivery of science events within designed public spaces such as museums, whilst having the potential to nurture science capital, visitor demographics are frequently skewed towards those already engaged (DeWitt et al, 2016) and not actually reaching new audiences but seeing the same core visitor demographics (Nielsen et al, 2019) i.e. participants with existing high science capital (Canovan, 2020;DeWitt et al, 2016;Kennedy et al, 2018).…”

“…Many are hosted by city and university partnerships, so often combine informal and academic settings for activities. Literature evaluating the impact of these science festivals shows that participants report a perceived increase in knowledge and understanding (Jensen & Buckley, 2014) but they are still seen as quite a niche with only a small percentage of people visiting (Castell et al, 2014) and typically attracting educated science engaged visitors (Nielsen et al, 2019). However, informal science experiences in university settings can help people to feel associated with a university campus (AbiGhannam et al, 2016) thus highlighting the importance of these events in relationship building between the public and places of higher education.…”

“…By bringing science out into the community and working with non-STEM partner organisations, many new methods of delivering diverse science public engagement events have evolved. However, the success of such events in reaching new audiences and the impact on participants are frequently challenged in the literature (Canovan, 2020;DeWitt et al, 2016;Kennedy et al, 2018;Nielsen et al, 2019). With little research focusing on more formal setting event delivery (for example university-based) this study evaluates a large-scale family-focused university campus-hosted public engagement event, analysing the successes and limitations on visitor impact and reaching new audiences.…”

Science Communication Efforts and Identity at Popular Culture Conventions

“…More recently, however, more expansive views of where it is possible to communicate science have come into play, thanks in part to concerted calls to engage the public on science topics outside of traditional venues (Falk & Dierking, 2010). We have seen a growing body of work concerning the communication of science in more “nontraditional,” often leisure-focused environments (Bultitude & Sardo, 2012), such as science cafes (Dallas, 2014), science festivals (Boyette & Ramsey, 2019; Jensen & Buckley, 2014; Nielsen et al, 2019), and even airports (Arcand & Watzke, 2010) as a result. In general, these studies seek to understand what happens when people encounter science in an environment that they do not expect, such as a setting that is meant purely for fun , or for purely leisure-focused hobbies.…”