Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.22323/2.18060202
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Storytelling for narrative approaches in citizen science: towards a generalized model
Author Richter, A.; Sieber, A.; Siebert, J.; Miczajka-Rußmann, V.; Zabel, J.; Ziegler, D.; Hecker, S.; Frigerio, D.
Source Titel JCOM: Journal of Science Communication
Year 2019
Department iDiv; ESS
Volume 18
Issue 6
Page From A02
Language englisch
Keywords Citizen science; Science communication: theory and models
Abstract

Storytelling essentials are stories that direct attention, trigger emotions, and prompt understanding. Citizen science has recently promoted the narrative approach of storytelling as a means of engagement of people of all ages and backgrounds in scientific research processes. We seek understanding about the typology of storytelling in citizen science projects and explore to what extent the tool of storytelling can be conceptualized in the approach of citizen science. In a first step, we investigated the use and integration of storytelling in citizen science projects in the three European German-speaking countries. We conducted a low threshold content analysis of 209 projects listed on the German-speaking online platforms for citizen science projects “Bürger schaffen Wissen”, “Österreich forscht”, and “Schweiz forscht”. Two expert workshops with citizen science practitioners were held to validate and discuss the identified role of stories in the practice of citizen science. Our analysis revealed three major categories mirroring how stories are being integrated and applied in citizen science. The first category refers to projects, in which stories are the core research objective. The second category is characterized by the application of stories in different phases of the research project. The third category encompasses stories as agents being part of the communication and organization of the project. We illustrate the practical application of these categories by three representative case studies. By combining the functionality of the categories and abstracting the linkages between storytelling and citizen science, we derived a generalized model accounting for those linkages. In conclusion, we suggest that storytelling should be a prerequisite to enhance the competencies of the actors involved and to exchange knowledge at the interfaces of science and policy as well as science and society.

Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=22492
Richter, A., Sieber, A., Siebert, J., Miczajka-Rußmann, V., Zabel, J., Ziegler, D., Hecker, S., Frigerio, D. (2019):
Storytelling for narrative approaches in citizen science: towards a generalized model
JCOM: Journal of Science Communication 18 (6), A02 10.22323/2.18060202