Ten years of science news: A longitudinal analysis of scientific culture in the Spanish digital press. (August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Groves, Tamar; Figuerola, Carlos G.; Quintanilla, Miguel Á.
• Is Part Of: Public understanding of science. Volume 25:Number 6(2016:Aug.)
• Page Start: 691
• Page End: 705
• Publication Date: 2016-08
• Subjects: automatic classification -- media and science -- public understanding of science -- science and popular culture -- science communication -- science journalism -- text clustering; Science news -- Periodicals; Science -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.483
• DOI: 10.1177/0963662515576864
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-6625

Abstract

This article presents our study of science coverage in the digital Spanish press over the last decade. We employed automated information retrieval procedures to create a corpus of 50, 763 text units dealing with science and technology, and used automated text-analysis procedures in order to provide a general picture of the structure, characteristics and evolution of science news in Spain. We found between 6% and 7% of science coverage, a clear high proportion of biomedicine and predominance of science over technology, although we also detected an increase in technological content during the second half of the decade. Analysing the extrinsic and intrinsic features of science culture, we found a predominance of intrinsic features that still need further analysis. Our attempt to use specialised software to examine big data was effective, and allowed us to reach these preliminary conclusions.