Many scholars claim that the US is “unscientific” (e.g. Mooney & Kirshenbaum, 2009). That is, Americans are not interested in science—they are paying more attention to celebrities and popular culture such as reality television and less attention to scientists and pressing issues such as climate change. But, what happens when the two are combined? This study explores the distinctive series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, co-produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, and aired on Fox. By mining tweets using the designated hashtag #watchingcosmos during the series finale and conducting a network analysis of users and followers, this paper explores the following: Who is watching and live-tweeting Cosmos?; What is the potential Twitter audience for Cosmos tweets?; About what are viewers tweeting?; How do emergent tweet themes coincide with religious and political affiliations across the country?; How do these tweets and networks compare to those regarding another popular science show—Through the Wormhole (hosted by Morgan Freeman) or another Fox show—Family Guy?; Is airing the show on the Fox network drawing in an unexpected demographic?; and Can we glean anything about the “scientificness” of Americans through this analysis?
Preliminary results indicate that tweets are often RTs (or retweets) of popular users such as Tyson himself or are reiterations of passages from the episode. Users are also likely to use the hashtag #watchingcosmos to inform their followers that they are indeed watching, without including much other content. Finally, users that are connected to both Tyson and MacFarlane are few; users are more likely to follow/mention only one instead of both. Currently, the tweet content of these two groups is being analyzed to investigate if the show is indeed bridging the popular culture and science gap, or if the audiences are still fragmented.
About the presenterAngela M. Cirucci
Angela received her PhD from the School of Media and Communication at Temple University and is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Rowan University. Angela is a digital media scholar focusing on the symbolic meaning of programming languages, the intersection of institutional practice and user knowledge, and user experience. Often focusing on identity, she has a passion for studying how digital spaces impact the lives of marginalized communities.