Antibiotic resistance is an increasing global threat involving many actors, including the general public. We present findings from a content analysis of the coverage of antibiotic resistance in the Swedish print media with respect to the risk communication factors cause, magnitude and countermeasures. The most commonly reported cause of development and spread of resistance was unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. Risk magnitudes were mostly reported qualitatively rather than using quantitative figures. Risk-reduction measures were analyzed using a framework that distinguishes between personal and societal efficacy. Measures at the societal level were more commonly reported compared to the individual level.

The present study explores the extent and precision of evolutionary explanations for antibiotic resistance in communication directed toward the Swedish public. Bacterial resistance develops through evolutionary mechanisms and knowledge of these helps to explain causes underlying the growing prevalence of resistant strains, as well as important countermeasures to address the problem. A content analysis based on key evolutionary concepts underpinning resistance development was conducted on three different data sources: print newspapers, online websites and biology textbooks. The results revealed that evolutionary mechanisms are seldom included in accounts of antibiotic resistance provided by these sources. One of the included textbooks (n = 6) but none of the newspaper articles (n = 221) or websites (n = 19) covered all six concepts considered in the analysis. A cluster of four concepts regarded as most important for understanding the evolution of resistance development was only included in one news article, one textbook and two websites. Moreover, explanations were seldom supported visually and only two accompanying illustrations were found during the analysis. The results indicated that a large proportion of the Swedish public might never encounter an explanation of antibiotic resistance in evolutionary terms. This could be problematic since increased public awareness and understanding is crucial to counter the issue of bacterial resistance. 

Educational videos on the Internet comprise a vast and highly diverse source of information. Online search engines facilitate access to numerous videos claiming to explain natural selection, but little is known about the degree to which the video content match key evolutionary content identified as important in evolution education research. In this study, we therefore analyzed the content of 60 videos accessed through the Internet, using a criteria catalog with 38 operationalized variables derived from research literature. The variables were sorted into four categories: (a) key concepts (e.g. limited resources and inherited variation), (b) threshold concepts (abstract concepts with a transforming and integrative function), (c) misconceptions (e.g. that evolution is driven by need), and (d) organismal context (e.g. animal or plant). The results indicate that some concepts are frequently communicated, and certain taxa are commonly used to illustrate concepts, while others are seldom included. In addition, evolutionary phenomena at small temporal and spatial scales, such as subcellular processes, are rarely covered. Rather, the focus is on population-level events over time scales spanning years or longer. This is consistent with an observed lack of explanations regarding how randomly occurring mutations provide the basis for variation (and thus natural selection). The findings imply, among other things, that some components of natural selection warrant far more attention in biology teaching and science education research.

Antibiotic resistance is typically used to justify education about evolution, as evolutionary reasoning improves our understanding of causes of resistance and possible countermeasures. It has also been promoted as a useful context for teaching natural selection, because its potency as a selection factor, in combination with the very short generation times of bacteria, allows observation of rapid selection. It is also amenable to animations, which have potential for promoting conceptual inferences. Thus, we have explored the potential benefits of introducing antibiotic resistance as a first example of natural selection, in animations, to novice pupils (aged 13–14 years). We created a series of animations that pupils interacted with in groups of 3–5 (total n = 32). Data were collected at individual (pre-/post- test) and group (collaborative group questions) levels. In addition, the exercise was video-recorded and the full transcripts were analysed inductively. The results show that most of the pupils successfully applied basic evolutionary reasoning to predict antibiotic resistance development in tasks during and after the exercise, suggesting that this may be an effective approach. Pedagogical contributions include the identification of certain characteristics of the bacterial context for evolution teaching, including common misunderstandings, and factors to consider when designing animations.