"take caution before using the contents of this report out of context": Mapping the use of research on controversial topics

Mapping theories and frameworks (e.g., Actor-Network Theory) offer us a way to contextualize and examine the risk communication practices enacted in controversial public discourses such as gun control and vaccination. Such ongoing controversies (often playing out over years and even decades) typify the reactionary model of risk communication [5] in which experts and public audiences communicate past rather than with each other (participatory model) in attempts to influence policy and opinions in the public sphere. In this project, we ask what role government-funded research plays in shaping these discourses. We begin with two government-funded research reports made available to the public in order to examine how these reports are linked, cited, and interpreted across various websites and social media. Mapping these communication practices can help us better understand the reactionary model, how communication design and medium contribute to this model, and possibilities for intervention to move toward a participatory model as advocated by scholars [1, 2].