Why can’t a flight jacket be pink or purple? That was the question a 7-year-old girl asked her mother, Kellie Gerardi, an astronaut, researcher and science communicator. When Gerardi later appeared on a TV interview wearing a bright pink flight jacket, her daughter pointed to her mom on the TV screen, smiling with delight. This exchange — which appeared in a post on Gerardi’s Instagram account — was a personal moment, skillfully presented through the language and visuals of social media. But it also conveys a clear message: femininity and scientific credibility are not mutually exclusive. The video is one of 194 posts analysed in a new study published in the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM), which examined the Instagram activity of three women astronauts and science influencers: Kellie Gerardi, Shawna Pandya and Norah Patten. The research was conducted by Karen Shalev and Shannon Pappas, both graduate students, and Jocelyn Steinke, professor of communication at the University of Connecticut. It shows that science communication on social media involves more than explaining facts and concepts. Personal experiences, the communicator’s identity and platform-specific tools — from music and hashtags to humour and references to popular culture — all contribute to shaping the message. “Our major finding was that these three science influencers were strategic in the way they framed messages on Instagram, not only to communicate scientific information, and hopefully to foster public interest and engagement in STEMM, but also to build their own personal brands and expand their audiences on Instagram,” Steinke explains.
