Lefebvre Muriel, Renard Julie
LERASS, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
PLoS One. 2016 Jul 28;11(7):e0158393. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158393. eCollection 2016.
On 5th December 2012, a scientific article reviewing a change in the feeding behaviour of the European catfish, one of the largest freshwater fish, was published in the American scientific journal, PLOS ONE, an open access journal, which also allows the mass publication of pictures and videos. Within a few days following the publication of this article, it was relayed by numerous web sites and generated a media craze. In this paper, we analyse the circulation of this scientific information in the sphere of Web-based media during the two months following its publication, by revealing the citation mechanisms of the original article and the logic of the Internet users participating in its diffusion. In addition, since the circulation of its informational content travelled beyond linguistic and geographical boundaries, we chose to compare the citation modalities and intertextual relationships of documents in the three countries where the article spread the most widely, namely: France, the United States and Great Britain. Even though our study shows that the media circulation of scientific papers operates in a traditional way, the intertextual analysis underlines the grand variety of participants (such as journalists, non-scientists, fishermen, technology enthusiasts and Internet users) involved in the diffusion of this information, each of them mobilizing different intertextual strategies, according to their various targets. They all transformed, reformulated and appropriated the scientific information according to their own, unique interests. This study also emphasizes the importance of journalistic websites as opinion relays. They were the first diffusers involved in spreading the information but this role was rarely acknowledged by the Internet users - through citations, for example. In contrast, we observed that amateurs' communities (communities of practices and communities of interest of fishermen or of buzz fans), which only became involved in a second temporal phase of the spreading, preferred to build up their credibility through citations of the original article. Finally, this research helps to rethink the mechanisms of the circulation of scientific information in the Web-based media, highlighting both the variety and the inventiveness of the interactions between the academic and public spheres.
2012年12月5日，一篇回顾欧洲鲶鱼（最大的淡水鱼之一）摄食行为变化的科学文章发表在美国科学期刊《公共科学图书馆·综合》上，这是一本开放获取期刊，还允许大量发表图片和视频。在这篇文章发表后的几天内，众多网站进行了转发，引发了媒体热潮。在本文中，我们通过揭示原始文章的引用机制以及参与其传播的互联网用户的逻辑，分析了该科学信息在发表后的两个月内在网络媒体领域的传播情况。此外，由于其信息内容的传播跨越了语言和地理界限，我们选择比较该文章传播最广泛的三个国家（即法国、美国和英国）的文献引用方式和互文关系。尽管我们的研究表明科学论文的媒体传播以传统方式进行，但互文分析强调了参与该信息传播的众多参与者（如记者、非科学家、渔民、技术爱好者和互联网用户），他们根据各自不同的目标采用了不同的互文策略。他们都根据自己独特的兴趣对科学信息进行了转化、重新表述和挪用。这项研究还强调了新闻网站作为观点传播媒介的重要性。它们是最早参与传播信息的媒介，但互联网用户很少通过引用等方式认可其这一作用。相比之下，我们观察到业余爱好者群体（实践社区以及渔民或热点粉丝的兴趣社区），它们在传播的第二个阶段才参与进来，更倾向于通过引用原始文章来建立自己的可信度。最后，这项研究有助于重新思考科学信息在网络媒体中的传播机制，突出了学术领域和公共领域之间互动的多样性和创造性。
