Means of the comic in popular science texts

The aim of the study is to examine the use of the comic in popular science texts as a tool capable of simplifying complex scientific knowledge and making it more memorable for a broad audience. To analyze humorous devices and techniques, 36 textual materials on zoological and biological topics (totaling 72 materials) from the public community "Nature Science" on VKontakte and the popular science internet resource "N + 1" from 2023 were used. The analysis of the texts employed the method of qualitative content analysis, with the unit of measurement being a device for creating a comic effect within the text. Initially, expressive means used to create a comic effect were identified in the empirical material; these were then grouped according to the approach to creating the comic. The frequency of use of various devices was calculated during the study. The most frequent were comic devices arising from a discrepancy between the plane of expression and the plane of content, and comic devices implicitly contained within linguistic units (specifically, phraseologisms, idioms, and their various modifications). To study the effectiveness of comic devices for memorizing and understanding scientific information, a survey was conducted in six groups. Each group consisted of six students aged 20 to 25, with three males and three females, from fields of study unrelated to the topics of the popular science publications. Respondents received two versions of a short popular science text, read it, then answered questions about the text’s content (seven questions for each text). After three weeks, they answered the content questions again without re-reading the text. The study results showed that the use of comic devices in popular science texts can influence the understanding and memorization of information. The survey involving 36 students without specialized knowledge demonstrated that texts with comic elements are remembered better than neutral materials, but the advantage is not significant. Comic elements improved the memorization of the text’s general idea but slightly worsened the accuracy of reproducing details. In the long term, the memorization effect was enhanced. It was also revealed that the influence of comic devices depends on the topic. This suggests that the successful application of comic devices in popular science texts depends on the specificity of the subject and the presence within it of elements conducive to the more effective use of such devices. An unexpected result was the respondents’ active use of comic devices in their own answers, indicating greater reader engagement in a potential dialogue with the author. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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