Why can't a flight jacket be pink or purple? That was the question a 6-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.
What to look at, how to interpret it and where to focus
The study examined posts published on the influencers' three Instagram accounts between 24 June and 24 November 2024, following the announcement of an upcoming Virgin Galactic research mission featuring Gerardi, Pandya, and Patten as an all-women, international crew. The researchers analysed all components of the posts, including photographs, videos, written text, audio, hashtags and emojis.
Their aim was to investigate three aspects of communication: what topics the influencers selected, how they framed them, and which communication tactics they used to attract attention. In other words, the researchers considered what influencers' encouraged audiences to think about, how they guided audiences to interpret them, and where they directed audiences' attention.
The analysis identified six broad topics, seven message frames and five types of communication tactics. Some of the topics the women selected focused on their research and training, explained scientific phenomena, and showed experiments conducted in microgravity. At the same time, they shared the personal journeys that had led them to STEMM — science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine — and spoke about the people who had encouraged them, the challenges they had faced and aspects of their everyday lives.
Gerardi, for example, has spoken publicly about motherhood, infertility and her experiences with in vitro fertilisation. Patten shared photographs from her first visit to the Kennedy Space Center with her father and brother when she was 15, while Pandya recalled experiences and mentors who contributed to her path to becoming an astronaut. These posts allow audiences to see not only the scientific work, but also the people carrying out this work and the rarely linear paths that brought them there.
"We can see that there's definitely a strategic attempt here not only to share knowledge about STEMM and STEMM careers, but also to provide that insider perspective and to connect with audiences more personally, trying to foster authenticity, connection and engagement with very broad and diverse audiences," Steinke says. "By sharing their experiences with their audiences, they can indeed serve as influential role models for future generations and inspire girls to consider potentially being an astronaut in the future."
Science on in the language of Instagram
