Dynamics and interactions of blog-based science communication:A case study of blogging activities in China related to 2011 Japanese seismic and nuclear power crisis

• 作者: Li LIU Ronald ROUSSEAU Yang YANG Yuxian LIU
• 来源期刊: 中国文献情报：英文版
• 学科: 工学
• 关键词: Chinese BLOGOSPHERE INFORMETRICS TEMPORAL characte
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（1）
• 页码范围: 33-51
• 页数: 19页
• 分类号: TP393.092

摘要

Purpose:This paper tries to understand the dynamics of scientific communication systems during crises by investigating as a case study the blogging activities that took place during the period of the 2011 earthquake and related events in Japan.Interactions between bloggers and registered users are studied quantitatively and qualitatively at Sciencenet.cn,an influential science-related blogosphere in China.Design/methodology/approach:The editors of Sciencenet.cn compiled a special issue of science blog articles under the title Analysis of the Japanese Earthquake.We developed a spider program and downloaded from this special issue the metadata about title,content,publishing time,total read count,reply count and recommendation count,and further collected information about bloggers and recommenders.We then sent a short message to the bloggers who wrote articles on these emergencies,asking for their educational and professional background.Findings:We found that knowledge reflected in the blog articles is strongly related to the educational and professional background of bloggers.Knowledge diffusion is facilitated by interactions,such as recommendations,comments and answers.Interactions via comments and recommendations are of an assortative nature:A blog article is more likelyto be commented on and recommended by those bloggers who write on the same or similar topics than by those writing on a different one.Registered users tend to give comments on articles dealing with the topic that they recommend,and vice versa.Interaction in the intersection of two or three topics is more intense than that within one topic.The impact of blog articles is also influenced by other factors,such as the reputation of the blogger and the type of information they contain.Implications and limitations:It is confirmed that studying blogs is a valid approach within informetric studies.Yet,we only studied one triple(earthquake,tsunami,nuclear disaster)event based on data originating from one Chinese blog website.More events should be studied.Or