PropertyValue
is nif:broaderContext of
nif:broaderContext
is schema:hasPart of
schema:isPartOf
nif:isString
  • The analysis of scientific citation practices in research is usually based on well-identified bibliometric indicators but no such protocol exists for the study of media citation modalities. Therefore, we designed a specific methodology to analyse the circulation of scientific information in the Web-based media sphere, which took all intertextual traces into account at the same time – in this case, references to the original article in PLOS ONE (standard academic reference) and citation of a part of the original article (whether textual, visual - photos or drawings, or video). First, we performed a search on Google to identify intertextual traces of the original article on the Internet websites. Then, we manually extracted the data relevant to our research: quotes and links (to PLOS ONE journal, to the authors’ names or to the scientific institutions involved), presence of photos or videos coming from the original article, links to other important articles, release date, topic, theme, etc. In order to obtain a homogeneous corpus, we suppressed all the articles written before 5th December 2012, or clearly not related to our topic (recipes for cooking pigeons, etc. ). Secondly, for the French corpus, we observed that, although some items referred to the original article in PLOS ONE or to other important websites, this was not always the case. So, we conducted a content analysis, through different indicators (use of common statistics, use of common sentences, use of hypertextual links) to map the circulation and the citation mechanisms of the original article. Census of the websites evoking the change in Catfish feeding behaviour: To start, we decided not to consider the social networks online, such as Facebook or Twitter, because of their specific diffusion mechanisms [9][10]. Our study focused on non-academic websites reaching a broader audience than the academic one. Non-academic websites diffusing this information were identified using the Google search engine on 31st December 2012 with the following key words: "silure et pigeon" for France, and "catfish and pigeon" for the United States and Great Britain. The choice of Google, a non-specialized, popular search engine, reflected our desire to identify as many of the non-academic websites as possible and to identify the way this specific content could circulate, sometimes without an obvious link to the original information. One of our goals was to identify links other than those occurring through clear references (to the authors, to PLOS ONE, or to the scientific institutions concerned). The number of results was large enough for us to limit our corpus to the first fifty pages of the Google search results. After suppression of the academic results, of articles written before 5th December 2012 and of articles clearly not related to our topic (cookery recipes, etc. ), we identified 210 posts unevenly distributed among the three countries: 128 in France, 49 in the United States and 33 in Great Britain. Even though the number of articles differed from country to country, the in-depth content of our corpus allowed some major trends to be identified. Additionally, the research highlighted the methodological issue raised by the attempt to carry out systematic analysis of information pathways on the Internet. Types, nature of media, status of authors and readers were numerous and tightly interconnected. All attempts to classify websites strictly according to their type (such as media status for instance) failed, as a given piece of information often possessed more than one status: The Passeur de sciences Blog is both Pierre Barthélémy’s blog and strongly affiliated to the French newspaper Le Monde as it is hosted by the paper’s website. However, it was still necessary to analyse the information items, so a new way to analyse the information flows and pathways online had to be found. We ranked the sites relaying the information by media category and pooled the data in an analytical table. Online version of traditional media (VL): La Dépêche (Fr), France Inter (Fr), The Week (US), The Blaze (US), The connexion (GB), Birdwatch (GB), etc.Sites Native to the Web (NW, information sites existing only online): Actuzz (Fr), Carré d’info, Fun-buzz (Fr), Business insider (US), Grist (US), Mail Online (GB), Descrier (GB), etc.Content Aggregators: NewsYahoo (Fr), Google actualités (Fr), Geekosystem (US), Yahoo News (US), Travel AOL (GB), Noxxed (GB), etc.Forums: SilureGlanis (Fr), Carpe Alsace (Fr), io9 (US), Carp Forum (GB), Fishkeeping (GB), etc.Blogs: 2tout2rien (Fr), Littlefishing, America Blog (US), ZME Science (US), Pigeon Mania (GB), Following the nerd (GB), etc.Sites (administrations, corporations, associations): Terra Femina (Fr), Amis des Amis (Fr), 10000 Birds (US), GeekyDump (US), Aqcenter (GB), Grindtv (GB), etc.S1 Fig shows the proportion of categories of each site in each country. Boundaries between the chosen categories are complex and porous. The choice of these categories nevertheless proved to be useful for analysing the circulation of the PLOS ONE article in the Internet media sphere. Each type of site has, by its nature, a specific editorial line, a different editorial status engaged (the expert-researcher, the journalist or the amateur), distinct reader agreements [24] and various ways to appropriate and process information. To complete this analytical table, we designed a thematic classification to analyse the editorial treatment of the PLOS ONE article citations. Depending on the site, we observed two distinct editorial choices: in the first case, the change in the catfish feeding behaviour was highlighted while, in the second case, the oddness of the information or even problematic fishing policies were underlined. Seven themes were identified, some of which were broken down into the following sub-themes: General information (News): 20min (FR), Canal plus (FR), Fark.com (US), Grist (US), The connexion (GB), French News Online (GB), etc.Media and Technology (M&T): Actuzz (FR), Divertissonsnous (FR), Reviewer (US), Geekosystem (US), Business Insider (US), Gismodo (GB), Digital Spy (GB), etc.Fauna and Flora (F&F): La pêche et les poissons (FR), Actualités news environnement (FR), Animal Fact guide (US), LiveLeak (US), Fishkeeping (GB), Pigeon Mania (GB), etc.Science and Technology (S&T): Sciencesetavenir (FR), Futura-Sciences (FR), Discover (US), SciTech Daily (US), etc.Odd and Funny (H& I): Mortderire (FR), vidéo-buzz (FR), Blog's avenue (US), Tobefun (US), Boreme (GB), Anorak (US), etc.Academic:Paul Sabatier University (FR), CNRS (FR), Smithsonian (US), etc.Diverse: (category that includes disconnected themes such as rural life, the paranormal, health and individual initiatives): Nous ne sommes pas seuls (FR), Fédération des acteurs ruraux (FR), EarthTouch TV (US), Grindtv (GB), etc.Some themes or types of sites maintained rather vague borders (S2 Fig). For example, some media were not present in the whole corpus. This was the case for academic sites such as the CNRS or University Paul Sabatier, for which there are no equivalents in the United States or Great Britain. Likewise for the “Science and Technology” theme, which was not represented in Great Britain. This element led us to develop thematic categories not from the way the contributors themselves defined the themes of their websites, but rather through a content analysis of our corpus websites. The corpus disparity among the three countries analysed and the geographical anchorage of the contents of the scientific article led us to treat US, British and French documents differently. On the basis of the variety of information we found, as explained above, we developed a comparative analysis of the circulation of the original information in all three countries, exploring the date of publication, the previously defined categories and, finally, the number of sites citing the original article. Then, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the French corpus, involving content analysis tools with a specific focal point. Three different indicators were considered in this intertextual analysis: use of common statistics, use of common sentences, and use of hypertextual links. This study helped us to map the circulation and the citation mechanisms of the original article.
rdf:type