Research catches up with the unstoppable reality of science communication through online video

Abstract

While online video has become synonymous with web-based searches for the younger generations and the communication of science and technology has jumped on the bandwagon of this trend, too, relatively little research has been undertaken on this phenomenon. Over the last few years a small group of scholars from different institutions have independently begun to explore this field and to discuss their findings at international conferences, as reported previously in Allgaier and Geipel [2016] and in this journal in Stengler [2016]. Some articles have become essential references, such as Welbourne and Grant [2016] and Muñoz Morcillo, Czurda and Robertson-von Trotha [2016]. While there was an e-book published in German on the topic [Körkel and Hoppenhaus, 2016], and an extensive review will also be included in the Second International Handbook of Internet Research [Allgaier, 2020, to appear], the book Communicating Science and Technology Through Online Video edited by Bienvenido León and Michael Bourk is a timely arrival in the academic literature and shows that a critical mass of research in the field is being reached.