The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research
Local and national media have always played an instrumental role in the communication of academic research to the public. In recent years, this has proved even more important due to the extensive online national and international coverage of topics such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. G...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Insights: The UKSG Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://account.insights.uksg.org/index.php/up-j-i/article/view/624 |
| _version_ | 1797748803226304512 |
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| author | Andy Tattersall Christopher Carroll |
| author_facet | Andy Tattersall Christopher Carroll |
| author_sort | Andy Tattersall |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Local and national media have always played an instrumental role in the communication of academic research to the public. In recent years, this has proved even more important due to the extensive online national and international coverage of topics such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that the media represent the public’s first point of contact with, and key source of information about, science and research, then, as academics, we need to know, firstly, whether the media make this research easily identifiable for the public and, secondly, whether the research itself is accessible. Our study examined coverage of University of Sheffield published research in UK local and national media to explore how far it is identifiable and accessible; using data from Altmetric.com we investigated what proportion of research covered provided sufficient details to identify research, including links to the published articles and explored how much of the research was accessible via open access. A large proportion of research that featured in local media cited the journal, academic institution and author, but did not link to the article. By contrast, national media cited the author, institution or funder much less than local news websites, but often linked to the actual research article. Most articles featured were open access. The implications of this and potential reasons for the national and local differences are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:10:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0088e132a53f4bfeae703b6b7737cdab |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2048-7754 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:10:05Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Insights: The UKSG Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-0088e132a53f4bfeae703b6b7737cdab2023-08-09T14:06:56ZengUbiquity PressInsights: The UKSG Journal2048-77542023-07-0136151510.1629/uksg.624622The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of researchAndy Tattersall0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2842-9576Christopher Carroll1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6361-6182Information Specialist, School of Health and Related Research, The University of SheffieldReader in Systematic Review and Evidence Synthesis, School of Health and Related Research, University of SheffieldLocal and national media have always played an instrumental role in the communication of academic research to the public. In recent years, this has proved even more important due to the extensive online national and international coverage of topics such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that the media represent the public’s first point of contact with, and key source of information about, science and research, then, as academics, we need to know, firstly, whether the media make this research easily identifiable for the public and, secondly, whether the research itself is accessible. Our study examined coverage of University of Sheffield published research in UK local and national media to explore how far it is identifiable and accessible; using data from Altmetric.com we investigated what proportion of research covered provided sufficient details to identify research, including links to the published articles and explored how much of the research was accessible via open access. A large proportion of research that featured in local media cited the journal, academic institution and author, but did not link to the article. By contrast, national media cited the author, institution or funder much less than local news websites, but often linked to the actual research article. Most articles featured were open access. The implications of this and potential reasons for the national and local differences are discussed.https://account.insights.uksg.org/index.php/up-j-i/article/view/624mediaaltmetricsscholarly communicationsuk newsresearch communicationsimpact |
| spellingShingle | Andy Tattersall Christopher Carroll The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research Insights: The UKSG Journal media altmetrics scholarly communications uk news research communications impact |
| title | The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research |
| title_full | The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research |
| title_fullStr | The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research |
| title_full_unstemmed | The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research |
| title_short | The missing link: the quality of UK local and national online media coverage of research |
| title_sort | missing link the quality of uk local and national online media coverage of research |
| topic | media altmetrics scholarly communications uk news research communications impact |
| url | https://account.insights.uksg.org/index.php/up-j-i/article/view/624 |
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