Participatory Communication with Social Media

Abstract Major museums worldwide are starting to use social media such as blogs, podcasts and content shares to engage users via participatory communication. This marks a shift in how museums publicly communicate their role as custodians of cultural content and so presents debate around an institution's attitude towards cultural authority. It also signifies a new possible direction for museum learning. This article reports on a range of initiatives that demonstrate how participatory communication via social media can be integrated into museum practices. It argues that the social media space presents an ideal opportunity for museums to build online communities of interest around authentic cultural information, and concludes with some recent findings on and recommendations for social media implementation.     

国内外博物馆社交媒体应用研究综述

本文通过梳理国内外博物馆社交媒体应用的相关研究,发现国外研究主要聚焦于社交媒体对博物馆权威影响的探讨、博物馆社交媒体应用情况的综合分析、社交媒体促进博物馆教育的策略应用、社交媒体对博物馆管理的影响、行业社交媒体应用指南的发布,这些主题从分析社交媒体应用的可行性到观察应用效果,再到思考应用影响、提出初步的应用规范。而国内研究主题明显分为三个时段,即以借鉴启示为主的萌芽阶段、以传播营销为主的实践阶段、博物馆核心职能实践与探讨阶段,整体上更关注社交媒体应用的正面效应。相对而言,国内博物馆社交媒体应用研究主要集中于传播和营销,特别关注现象级博物馆社交平台运营策略;在国内各类博物馆社交媒体应用的定量研究中,研究对象类型比较单一;少部分研究关注社交媒体与博物馆教育等核心功能及相关管理机制的影响,但极少关注如何规范社交媒体的运营以确保博物馆的权威性和可信度。     

Museums and the Agency of Ideology: Three Recent Examples

Abstract Museums are not neutral organizations; they are active social participants. While museums serve many social purposes, fundamentally they define and express major social narratives. Museums are important collections of ideological symbols and perform a special communication as well as legitimizing role. The narratives conveyed by museums are observed as definitive and authoritative, and the objects displayed are understood as emblematic or normative culture. This article examines two museums and a historic site in the United States in the context of their social narratives. Attention is paid to the political implications of recent program decisions. The social and political interactions that accompany these institutions' program decisions demonstrate the ideological purpose of the museum.     

新媒体时代博物馆传播的多元化需求与对策

新媒体时代,传统的博物馆传播模式受到了极大挑战。根据受众对于传播媒介、传播方式日益多样化需求的分析,本文提出:多元化传播是当代博物馆自身功能变革与发展的内涵要求,更是博物馆应对外部新媒体时代的发展要求。在此基础上,通过对于博物馆传播特征、受众需求和博物馆多元化传播案例的分析,探讨了新媒体时代的博物馆传播的多元化需求与对策。     

Media in the Museum: A Personal History

Abstract In the past 50 years, museums have adapted various media for use in museum exhibitions. In the past 15 years, both the formats and the applications have changed dramatically, altering the relationships between museums and visitors, and between visitors and collections. Taking on the challenge of the newest media allows museums to experiment and to reinvigorate their interpretive programs.     

试论以观众为中心的策展实践启示——从美国的“教育策展人”说起

随着教育成为博物馆最主要的功能之一,博物馆对教育的重视程度与日俱增,教育活动与项目纷纷推出。但值得注意的是,展览中的教育元素仍未有效体现或并未与教育活动交相呼应,在策展过程中,教育人员常常被排除在策展团队之外。这也导致了国内展览的教育价值无法充分发挥,展教结合的愿景仍然任重道远;而2017年美国博物馆协会年会上,“教育策展人”(Edu-curator)的概念首次被提出,同时,教育人员等其他社会成员加入策展,形成以观众为中心的合作策展模式也在近两年时间内在美国各博物馆兴起。这值得国内博物馆界参考与借鉴,相应实践也可以成为一种学习启示。     

Participatory media new and old: semiotics and affordances of museum media

The move from “old” to “new” media centrally involves a shift in participatory possibilities, through which individuals and communities differentially access and populate the public sphere, assume voice, and partake in open discussion and debate. This paper offers a rich ethnographic case study of new participatory media in the shape of commenting systems in museums. By portraying the similarities and the differences in communicative affordances between two museum media—traditional visitor books, on the one hand, and a digital and immersive interface, on the other hand—light is shed on how media invite and intervene in possibilities for public participation. Furthermore, with their emphasis on visual design and display, studying participatory public media in museums helps highlight the semiotic construction of the public sphere as such, and how the notion of the public and laypersons’ contributions are materially displayed. Analysis of communicative affordances reveals the politics of remediation, and supports recent hesitations with regard to the promise of newer and “smarter” media: digital media affords more interaction than their analogue predecessors, but participatory content-production via analogue media is found to be discursively richer on a number of grounds.     

Media and the Museum: A Response to Learning Science in Informal Environments

Abstract Digital environments are one of the newest methods of resource‐ and program‐creation to be added to the museum toolkit, and are increasingly employed by museums across all fields to support learning. Unfortunately, this category is also one of the least‐fleshed‐out components in the Learning Science in Informal Environments (LSIE) chapter devoted to media. The report does not take into account the increasingly interwoven nature of media resources, particularly those found in digital environments. It is imperative that museums both become familiar with the breadth of research that is available related to digital environments and that they continue to specifically build an understanding of how this works in a museum setting.     

自然科学博物馆学术交流平台建设概述

学术是博物馆的立馆基础,学术交流是自然科学博物馆高质量发展的基础保障。我国自然科学博物馆已搭建了以学术会议、学术出版与新媒体为主的多渠道多层次的学术交流平台体系,但在学术会议数量与参与度、学术出版物的影响力、新媒体平台互动性等方面存在较大提升空间,需进一步重视学术研究与交流、搭建综合服务平台、完善学术激励机制、丰富交流手段等,以提升自然科学博物馆学术交流的质效,促进科普事业高质量发展。     

Learning from Culture: The Importance of the Museums and Galleries Education Program (Phase I) in England

Abstract During 1999–2002, the British government invested £3 million (roughly $5.5 million) in an unprecedented set of initiatives that explored the potential of museums and galleries for educating students in novel and compelling ways. The Museums and Galleries Education Program (Phase 1), or MGEP1, consisted of 65 projects linking schools and museums of all kinds. Projects took many forms and were spread across England, reaching students between the ages of 5 and 16. They also enlisted the talents and energies of creative professionals, such as artists and media producers, and involved parents, community members, and museum workers. This paper describes MGEP1, gives a “before and after” picture of museums and education in England, and assesses the program's impact. Learning outcomes for pupils and teachers are discussed, and the importance for museum education policy and practice is outlined.     

Expanding media and sexuality studies: a transnational study of sex museums

This article offers an introduction to my current project that investigates transnational flows of mediated sexuality among sex museums and other exhibitions of explicitly erotic materials. The project expands a communication studies focus on electronic media to consider alternative sites of mediation, such as the museum, as richly communicative. I explore the embodied context of museums to shift our traditional focus on audiences toward the more expansive concept of publics. I also trace different types of mobility—of discourses, materials, and people—in the circulation of commodified sexuality. The goal for these explorations is to theorize how sexual publics and mobilities intersect to construct an urbane, cosmopolitan, citizen consumer.     

国际比较视域下的科技博物馆教育活动知识图谱研究

教育活动是实现科技博物馆教育功能的重要途径。本文以CiteSpace软件为计量工具,以中国知网和科学引文索引数据库为数据来源,对国内外科技博物馆教育活动研究的文献进行可视化分析。研究发现国内外研究在时间发展趋势上具有相似性,新媒体的应用、活动设计与创新以及STEM教育的融入是国内外主要研究热点,但在研究理念、阶段、内容、方法等方面存在差异。技术融合、活动设计创新、观众研究和学习效果研究、馆校合作、展教人员专业化发展是未来研究生长点。     

Chinese Family Groups' Museum Visit Motivations: A Comparative Study of Beijing and Vancouver

This comparative study explored Chinese family groups' dominant visit motivations in science museums and aquariums in order to understand the perceptions of these audiences, who are an under‐represented cultural demographic in the literature. In this study, 503 Chinese participants—131 in the China Science and Technology Museum, Beijing; 127 in the Beijing Aquarium, Beijing; 136 in Science World British Columbia, Vancouver; and 109 in the Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver—completed a Family Group Visit Motivation Questionnaire. The results report four dominant visit motivations for these Chinese family groups. Significant differences in a fifth motivation, social interaction, were detected in comparing the Beijing and Vancouver Chinese family samples. Also, Chinese family groups were more likely to perceive science museums to be settings that can satisfy their educational and personal interest needs, compared to aquariums. This study provides insights for science museums and aquarium practitioners to better understand this audience demographic.     

Pricing and Licensing for Museum Digital Content

Museums' rights and reproduction departments are overwhelmed by and underprepared for requests for image use in electronic media. This article will evaluate related models for pricing and fees used by non-art industries, and provide some interim guidelines for museums while they make the transition to supplying requests for electronic media.     

科技馆评估指标体系研究

本文从教育是科技馆首要目的和首要功能的角度切入,论证科技馆评估应以教育功能为核心,以教育功能的实现情况为出发点。在分析国内外博物馆、科技馆评估理论研究与实践的基础上,归纳出科技馆评估的类型,并基于各级科技馆在中国特色现代科技馆体系中的定位和职责,提出科技馆评估方式——应直接根据科技馆的行政级别开展运行评估。在分析现有国内外博物馆、科技馆运行评估指标特点的基础上,提出科技馆运行评估指标的选取原则和指标体系,以期评估结果为我国科技馆事业的可持续发展提供借鉴和参考。     

顺应大势、勇于担当，共同开辟“一带一路”科普场馆发展的光明前景

自然科学博物馆是进行科学传播和开展科学教育的机构。通过回顾自然科学博物馆的发展历程,分析可持续发展目标、地区发展不均衡、科技与社会交互对自然科学博物馆发展所产生的主要影响,目前国际社会和自然科学博物馆为解决上述问题而采取的行动,以及自然科学博物馆未来发展面临的挑战,本文指出“一带一路”倡议为自然科学博物馆应对上述挑战提供了一揽子解决方案。据此,提出促进“一带一路”沿线国家自然科学博物馆之间互惠共享的多项对策和建议:搭建交流平台,开展合作,建立长效机制,加强能力建设,为“一带一路”沿线各国之间开展更深层次的科技、教育和文化合作交流注入活力,最重要的是为构建“一带一路”沿线国家自然科学博物馆命运共同体而共同协力。     

Objects in Focus: Museum Visitors and Instagram

While there is increasingly widespread use of social media by those visiting museum exhibitions relatively little is understood about this practice. Further still, the focus of such practices is unknown yet research in this area can reveal much about how visitors using applications driven by smart phone technology are engaging with exhibition content, space, design, architecture and people. This article draws on a case study of one exhibition using visual content analysis to frame, explore and interpret visual and text based posts by visitors using the social media application, Instagram, as part of their experience. Findings suggest that museum visitors using this application do so to account for and record details of their experience that draws attention to exhibition content, specifically objects. The implications are extensive for cultural institutions given the uptake of social media in all corners of life, with museums and galleries being a lively context for social media use via mobile technologies.     

Promoting Sustainability: Audience and Curatorial Perspectives on The Human Factor

Abstract Humanity faces a growing list of socio‐economic and environmental problems, which impel us all to foster more sustainable forms of development. This paper examines how museums might encourage the kind of awareness that can lead to sustainability, by assessing responses to The Human Factor, a permanent exhibition at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which raises questions about values, beliefs, and actions associated with the industrialized worldview. Responses to the exhibition were assessed through quantitative exit surveys and a novel technique involving heart rate monitors. Additional qualitative insights were gained from responses of participants in a high school Youth Forum on Sustainability that used the exhibition to catalyze discussion. Together, these studies suggest that provocative exhibitions can foster understanding and awareness among teenagers and adults through a combination of cognitive and emotional responses, and that a focus on sustainability can be challenging both for visitors and for museums as cultural institutions.     

我国专业科技博物馆发展现状与对策研究

本文在课题调研和数据分析的基础上,提出了当前我国专业科技博物馆在场馆和观众数量快速增长的同时,在发展质量上存在诸多问题,制约着专业科技博物馆科普教育功能的发挥,提出了我国专业科技博物馆“十三五”期间的五个战略重点:全面免费开放;开展监测评估,进行分类指导;专业科技博物馆充分利用新媒体;强化专业科技博物馆科普职能;推动专业科技博物馆校结合。并针对存在问题提出了六项对策与建议。     

A Synopsis and Perspective of Concerns and Challenges for the International Community of University Museums

University museums and their collections are among the oldest and most significant in the world, yet their role and future is being questioned. They have critical needs for facilities, staff, and support. At risk are millions of objects that document our natural and cultural history and programs for research, teaching, and public education and exhibits. The museums are attempting to redefine, reposition, and clarify their educational mission. Museums such as the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural history are successfully meeting the challenges through strategic planning and funding for new facilities. Other museums are finding solutions with partnerships, links, and tailor‐made service programs. New leadership and management will need to emerge for university museums to reestablish their stature and relevance. Physical and intellectual access to the museums and their objects is a key to their future. The new technologies are tools that museums can use to improve their interpretive programs and increase the depth of their research. Facing shared concerns and challenges, the museums are generating a growning sense of collective urgency and a call for intenational organization, advocacy, and cooperation, resulting in formation of the International Committee for University Museums and Collections.