john e. ross professor, and
director of graduate studies
department of life sciences communication
college of agricultural & life sciences
university of wisconsin

affiliate appointments
center for european studies, communication technologies research cluster,
robert f. and jean e. holtz center for science and technology studies,
school of journalism & mass communication

wisconsin pi
nsf center for nanotechnology in society at arizona state university


education
b.a., johannes gutenberg-
universität mainz
publizistik (minors in
political science and business)
m.a., university of wisconsin
journalism & mass communication
ph.d., university of wisconsin
mass communications
(minor in political science)
 

 
dietram a. scheufele
[DEE-trum SHOY-fell-eh]



 

Dietram A. Scheufele is the John E. Ross Chaired Professor in Science Communication at the University of Wisconsin. His tenure home is the Department of Life Sciences Communication in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, and he holds affiliate appointments in the Center for European Studies, the Communication Technologies Research Cluster, the Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, and the School of Journalism & Mass Communication. He is also Co-PI and co-leader of the Public Opinion and Values Research Team for the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU).

Prior to joining UW, he was a tenured faculty member at Cornell University. At UW, he teaches courses in Research Methods; Data Analysis; Media and Politics; Public Opinion and Science; and Internet and Democracy (for a full list of courses, including short catalog descriptions, click here).

 

research

Scheufele's research focuses on the intersection of media, politics and science, and has been supported by multi-year grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Worldwide Universities Network, and other funding agencies.

Scheufele has published extensively in the areas of public opinion, political communication, and public attitudes toward new technologies, including nanotechnology, stem cell research, and GMOs. His work on Framing as a theory of media effects, for instance, is identified by ISI Web of Science as the most frequently cited article in Journal of Communication written in the last decade. ISI also lists two publications by Scheufele among the three most cited articles in Political Communication.

(Click here for information on other publications and projects, including geographical and disciplinary collaboration maps. For alternative metrics, see scHolar, Google Scholar, and Scirus.)

 

academic honors

Scheufele's scholarship and teaching has been recognized with the Robert M. Worcester Award and the Naomi C. Turner Prize from the World Association for Public Opinion Research, the Young Scholar Award for outstanding early career research from the International Communication Association, the Pound Research Award from the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, the Young Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, the Vilas Associate Award from the University of Wisconsin, and various other research and teaching awards.He is also a past fellow of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).

 

service

Scheufele is a Co-Chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS), a joint committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Bar Association, and has previously served on the Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group to the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

He is a member of the editorial boards of Communication Methods and Measures, Communication Research, Communication Studies, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Journal of Communication, and Mass Communication & Society. He also serves on the steering committees of Wisconsin's Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies and the University of Wisconsin Survey Center.

Scheufele is past President of the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research and former journal review editor for the International Journal of Public Opinion Research. He has served on committees and advisory boards for the National Academy of Engineering, the American Political Science Association, the International Communication Association, the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, and numerous other organizations.

 

consulting

Scheufele's professional experience includes consulting work for firms, such as Fallon Worldwide and BD Biosciences, as well as numerous public-sector clients, including the National Center for Science Education, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and the World Bank.

He has also developed or conducted workshops on strategic communication for the World Health Organization (WHO), and on public opinion research for the Emirates Center for Strategic Study and Research (United Arab Emirates).


contact information

Department of
Life Sciences Communication (map)
University of Wisconsin–Madison
309 Hiram Smith Hall
1545 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1215

(v) +1.608.262.1614
(f) +1.608.265.3042
E-mail: scheufele@wisc.edu

(Click here for high-resolution
images for printing.)


  

what's new

february 1, 2010: Online-first version of new article with Amy Becker et. al. in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, exploring predictors of citizen participation in political controversies about science.

january 12, 2010: New column in The Scientist with Elizabeth Corley at ASU, showing widening gaps in public understanding of nanotechnology among different groups of the U.S. public.

january 8, 2010: New chapter with Bertram T. Scheufele on the mechamisms behind framing, in Doing news framing analysis: Empirical and theoretical perspectives.

october, 28, 2009: Talk on emerging challenges at the intersection of science, communication, and society at the School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

october 9, 2009: New article with Elizabeth Corley and Qian Hu on leading U.S. nano-scientists' policy stances about nanotechnology in Journal of Nanoparticle Research (10.1007/s11051-009-9671-5).

october 7, 2009: Release of new survey results (with Bret Shaw) tapping partisan divides in attitudes toward biofuels in Wisconsin.

october 2, 2009: Talk on 'human" science at the 2009 "What is Human?" conference, Center for Humanities, UW-Madison.

september 16, 2009: Keynote at the Annual Meeting of the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA.

(Listen to an mp3 recording of the keynote talk here.)

September 4, 2009: Online-first version of article with Matthew C. Nisbet on state-of-the-art research and practices in science communication in American Journal of Botany (10.3732/ajb.0900041).

august 4, 2009: New column in The Scientist with colleagues from Wisconsin, Arizona State, and Jülich, arguing that the rifts between scientists and lay publics may not be as deep as some recent surveys suggest.

june 12, 2009: Talk at ESF seminar on Quality and Comparability of Measures for Constructs in Comparative Research: Methods and Applications, Bolzano, Italy.

april 28, 2009: New article with Andy Binder, Kajsa Dalrymple, and Dominique Brossard in Communication Research on the impact of campaign talk on attitude extremity (10.1177/0093650209333023v1).

april 12, 2009: New article with Amy Becker in the International Journal of Press/Politics on public attitudes toward gay marriage during presidential campaigns.

march 9, 2009: Congressional briefing, Nanotechnology and the public: new data for decision makers, U.S. Congressional Nanotechnology Caucus, Washington, DC.

february 19, 2009: Talk at the 2nd Annual Conference on Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy, Food and Drug Law Institute, Washington, DC.

january 25, 2009:
Chapter on framing theory with David Tewksbury in the new third edition of Media Effects.

january 22, 2009:
New article with Bruce Hardy in Communication Theory on the moderating role of political discussion during election campaigns.

 

recent publications
and columns

Corley, E. A., & Scheufele, D. A. (2010). Outreach gone wrong? When we talk nano to the public, we are leaving behind key audiences. The Scientist, 24(1), p. 22.

Scheufele, B. T., & Scheufele, D. A. (2010). Of spreading activation, applicability, and schemas: Conceptual distinctions and their operational implications for measuring frames and framing effects. In P. D’Angelo & J. A. Kuypers (Eds.), Doing news framing analysis: Empirical and theoretical perspectives (pp. 110-134). New York: Routledge.

Jeffres , L., & Scheufele, D. A. (2009). What is the field of communication? Seeking answers from a survey of scholars … and – more importantly – from Klaus Schönbach. In C. Holtz-Bacha, G. Reus, & L. B. Becker (Eds.), Wissenschaft mit Wirkung [Research with impact] (pp. 73-84). Wiesbaden (Germany): Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.  

Nisbet, M. C., & Scheufele, D. A. (2009). What's next for science communication? Promising directions and lingering distractions. American Journal of Botany, 96(10), 1767-1778. (doi:10.3732/ajb.0900041)

Corley, E. A., Scheufele, D. A., & Hu, Q. (2009). Of risks and regulations: how leading US nanoscientists form policy stances about nanotechnology. Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 11(7), 1573-1585. (doi:10.1007/s11051-009-9671‑5)

Brossard, D., & Scheufele, D. A., Kim, E., & Lewenstein, B. V. (2009). Religiosity as a perceptual filter: Examining processes of opinion formation about nanotechnology. Public Understanding of Science, 18(5), 546–558. (doi:10.1177/0963662507087304)

Scheufele, D. A., Brossard, D., Dunwoody, S., Corley, E. A., Guston, D. H., & Peters, H. P. (2009, August 4). Are scientists really out of touch? The Scientist.

Binder, A. R., Dalrymple, K. E., Brossard, D., & Scheufele, D. A. (2009). The soul of a polarized democracy: Talk, media, and attitude extremity during the 2004 presidential election. Communication Research, 36(3), 315-340. (doi:10.1177/0093650209333023v1)

Becker, A. B. and D. A. Scheufele (2009). Moral politicking: Public attitudes toward gay marriage in an election context. International Journal of Press/Politics 14(2), 186-211. (doi:10.1177/1940161208330905)

Scheufele, D. A., Corley, E. A., Shih, T., Dalrymple, K. E., & Ho, S. S. (2009). Religious beliefs and public attitudes to nanotechnology in Europe and the US. Nature Nanotechnology, 4(2), 91 - 94. (doi:10.1038/nnano.2008.361)

Tewksbury, D., & Scheufele, D. A. (2009). News framing theory and research. In J. Bryant & M. B. Oliver (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research(3rd ed., pp. 17-33). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hardy, B., & Scheufele, D. A. (2009). Presidential campaign dynamics and the ebb and flow of talk as a moderator: Media exposure, knowledge of candidate issue stances, and political discussion. Communication Theory, 19(1), 89–101. (doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.01334.x)

Becker, A. B., & Scheufele, D. A. (2008). Public perceptions of the use of steroids in sport: Contextualizing communication efforts. International Journal of Sport Communication, 1(4), 444-457.

Ho, S. S., Brossard, D., & Scheufele, D. A. (2008). Effects of value predispositions, mass media use, and knowledge on public attitudes toward embryonic stem cell research. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 20(2), 171-192.

Scheufele, D. A., & Brossard, D. (2008). Nanotechnology as a moral issue? Religion and science in the U.S. [Cover article]. AAAS Professional Ethics Report, 21(1), 1-3.

Scheufele, D. A., & Corley, E. A. (2008). The science and ethics of good communication. Next Generation Pharmaceutical, 4(1), 66.

Scheufele, D. A. (2008). Framing theory. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of communication (pp. 1862-1868). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Scheufele, D. A. (2008). Media content and social networks. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of communication (2836-2838). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

 

select talks, lectures
and interviews

UW Policy Forum on Communicating Controversial Science – Talk on The Politics of Communicating Science– Madison, WI – July 2009

(Watch the webcast here)

Wednesday Nite @ the Lab (WAA) - Talk on Public opinion and media dynamics surrounding nanotechnology – Madison, WI – March 2009.


(Watch a recording of the webcast here)

Wisconsin Public Radio, Conversations with Joy Cardin - One-hour interview on Advertising in the 2008 Campaign - September 2008

(Listen to the MP3 recording here)

Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB - Talk on Public opinion and media dynamics surrounding emerging technologies – Santa Barbara, CA – February 2008.


(Listen to the podcast on CNS-UCSB on iTunes)