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Research Brief

Cracking The Code: Millennial Science Media Habits and Engagement Summary

February 8, 2022 | Media and Technology

KQED, a San Francisco based public media organization, is interested in broadening participation and attracting and engaging a younger and more diverse audience, especially millennials, for their science media. The KQED science team is one of the largest reporting teams in the West with a focus on science news and it’s YouTube series, Deep Look.  

This is a summary of Cracking the Code: Influencing Millennial Science Engagement, a three year media research project supported by NSF.  The project brought together KQED science media professionals, academic science media researchers from Texas Tech and Yale universities, an evaluator from Rockman et al and in the final year the University of Connecticut to study and research science media habits and behaviors of millennials.  

The study focused on two research questions:

1. How can KQED adapt and expand upon existing research to understand the role of science identity and curiosity in millennial engagement and interest in science media?

2. Which presentations – editorial tactics, platform choices, media elements, and outreach strategies – can increase millennials' curiosity and cognitive engagement with science content, with special attention given to underrepresented and under-engaged audiences within the generation?

These questions were studied using a variety of surveys, questionnaires and interviews and all of the research studies, reports and posts can be found on the KQED Cracking the Code website. 

 

TEAM MEMBERS

  • 2013 05 23 Sue Ellen
    Principal Investigator
    KQED, Inc.
  • Sevda Eris
    Co-Principal Investigator
    KQED, Inc.
  • REVISE logo
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Texas Tech University, College of Media and Communication
  • Sarah Mohamad
    Project Manager
    KQED, Inc.
  • ScottBurg1
    Evaluator
    Rockman et al
  • Citation

    Funders

    NSF
    Funding Program: AISL
    Award Number: 1811019
    Funding Amount: $1,932,857
    NSF
    Funding Program: AISL
    Award Number: 11810990
    Funding Amount: $152,034
    Resource Type: Research Products
    Discipline: General STEM
    Audience: Adults | Museum/ISE Professionals | Scientists
    Environment Type: Media and Technology | Broadcast Media | Websites, Mobile Apps, and Online Media

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