{"id":37583,"date":"2020-08-19T19:13:08","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T13:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583"},"modified":"2025-08-28T19:14:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T13:44:50","slug":"exploring-the-relationship-between-research-and-media-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/exploring-the-relationship-between-research-and-media-attention","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Media Attention Can (and Cannot) Do for Your Research<\/h5>\n<p>Today, the way we disseminate scientific research is very different from how it was a couple of decades ago. With various web-based platforms such as news outlets and social media paying more attention to scientific findings, its consumption by the lay audience has seen a drastic increase. This is accompanied by a growing awareness in the science community regarding the importance of research dissemination to a wider audience, with many now seeing it as a fundamental responsibility of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/1075547001023001003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">researchers<\/a>. Various universities are now expected to present evidence on the social impact that their research has (for example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ref.ac.uk\/about\/what-is-the-ref\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">REF<\/a>\u00a0in the UK). No doubt, there is an added pressure on researchers to make their mark in both the scientific and non-scientific world. But, many questions still continue to plague the scientific community. What exactly does media attention mean for scientific research? Does it also, in some way, have an effect on the attention given to it by the scientific community? Does media attention increase or decrease the value of scientific research?<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button ticss-f1a8ba49\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-text-color has-background no-border-radius\" href=\"https:\/\/www.impact.science\/blog\/post-share-engage-how-researchers-can-use-social-media-to-promote-their-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Researchers Can Use Social Media<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It is not that this relationship between non-scientific (attention given to the research by the lay public) and scientific impact (attention given to the research by the science community has never been explored before. Previous studies have proposed explanations like the \u201cearmark hypothesis,\u201d which says that the media will cover those studies that are valuable (implying that they didn\u2019t need media coverage in the first place). Another explanation, called the \u201cpublicity effect,\u201d has also been explored, which basically states that \u201cany publicity is good publicity.\u201d And while these hypotheses claim to answer a few questions, they have not been fully explored yet. Why? Because it isn\u2019t easy to quantify either scientific or non-scientific impact\u2014more so considering that the flow of information between traditional news platforms and social media is bidirectional.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button ticss-f1a8ba49\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-text-color has-background no-border-radius\" href=\"https:\/\/www.impact.science\/blog\/twitter-to-get-you-going-how-this-bite-sized-social-media-platform-can-take-your-research-to-the-right-audience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Twitter Can Take Your Research to the Right Audience<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In an effort to fix the gaps in our current understanding on what media attention actually does to scientific research, a new study tried to dig deeper into the association of non-scientific and scientific impact. In this study, published in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0234912\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PLOS One<\/a>, scientists decided to take a mathematical approach to try to find some these answers. They used tools like the Altmetric Attention score and number of social media mentions to measure non-scientific attention, whereas scientific attention was measured through citations in other research papers through platforms like Scopus, Mendeley, etc. Since factors like author and journal reputation can influence both scientific and non-scientific attention, the scientists accounted for these in their calculations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button ticss-f1a8ba49\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color has-text-color has-background no-border-radius\" href=\"https:\/\/www.impact.science\/blog\/how-can-academics-use-linkedin-for-research-promotion-in-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Academics Can Use LinkedIn for Research Promotion in 2020<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The research team studied a large dataset, consisting of more than 800 peer-reviewed research papers. Their emphasis was on research related to physical health and exercise, considering that these areas are often the most talked about in the media. Their findings confirmed what has been speculated before: there was indeed\u00a0<strong>a positive influence of non-scientific impact on scientific impact<\/strong>, meaning that scientific experiments receiving more attention in non-scientific media such as mainstream news and\/or social media are cited more in other scientific articles. This could mean two things: either the media are discussing the most relevant papers or that increased coverage of a scientific article increases the likelihood of an article receiving scientific citations. Their observations also indicated that the factors that had been accounted for, author and journal reputations, also influenced the number of citations. But what was not revealed through their experiments was whether this relationship is causal.<\/p>\n<p>P. Sage Anderson, the lead author of this study, explains, \u201c<em>Our findings do not indicate that scientists, or their associated institutions, will experience greater scientific impact by enlarging their media relations staff or expanding their social media outreach. But, given the strong association, they should carefully consider the impact of popular and social media when striving to expand their influence or evaluate the influence of individual scientists.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The perception of scientific research, in both the non-scientific and scientific worlds, is multidimensional. Thus, many aspects of non-scientific and scientific attention to research still need more clarity. But, one thing is clear through this study: While scientific outreach is crucial to make it more accessible to the general public, it may also be directly beneficial to researchers trying to bring other scientists\u2019 attention to their research. It is a two-way street, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Media Attention Can (and Cannot) Do for Your Research Today, the way we disseminate scientific research is very different from how it was a couple of decades ago. With various web-based platforms such as news outlets and social media paying more attention to scientific findings, its consumption by the lay audience has seen a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52121,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5892],"tags":[],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-37583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-media-in-research-communication"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention | Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What Media Attention Can (and Cannot) Do for Your Research Today, the way we disseminate scientific research is very different from how it was a couple of decades ago. With various web-based platforms such as news outlets and social media paying more attention to scientific findings, its consumption by the lay audience has seen a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-19T13:43:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-28T13:44:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"avantika deo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"avantika deo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"avantika deo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc0a00465dd4944b3e123e33842b3f4e\"},\"headline\":\"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-19T13:43:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-28T13:44:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\"},\"wordCount\":750,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Social Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\",\"name\":\"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention | Editage Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-19T13:43:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-28T13:44:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"width\":656,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Editage Insights\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Editage\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc0a00465dd4944b3e123e33842b3f4e\",\"name\":\"avantika deo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcb6b804d051ac980aef6be06d363c6e194c01aa332f5fe226eef26cb5a5bf49?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcb6b804d051ac980aef6be06d363c6e194c01aa332f5fe226eef26cb5a5bf49?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"avantika deo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/avantika-deo\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention | Editage Insights","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention | Editage Insights","og_description":"What Media Attention Can (and Cannot) Do for Your Research Today, the way we disseminate scientific research is very different from how it was a couple of decades ago. With various web-based platforms such as news outlets and social media paying more attention to scientific findings, its consumption by the lay audience has seen a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2020-08-19T13:43:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-28T13:44:50+00:00","author":"avantika deo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"avantika deo","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583"},"author":{"name":"avantika deo","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc0a00465dd4944b3e123e33842b3f4e"},"headline":"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention","datePublished":"2020-08-19T13:43:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-28T13:44:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583"},"wordCount":750,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","articleSection":["Social Media"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583","name":"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention | Editage Insights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","datePublished":"2020-08-19T13:43:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-28T13:44:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","width":656,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37583#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Exploring the Relationship Between Research and Media Attention"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","name":"Editage Insights","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization","name":"Editage Insights","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":324,"caption":"Editage Insights"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","https:\/\/x.com\/Editage"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/cc0a00465dd4944b3e123e33842b3f4e","name":"avantika deo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcb6b804d051ac980aef6be06d363c6e194c01aa332f5fe226eef26cb5a5bf49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcb6b804d051ac980aef6be06d363c6e194c01aa332f5fe226eef26cb5a5bf49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"avantika deo"},"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/avantika-deo"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37583"},{"taxonomy":"new_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_categories?post=37583"},{"taxonomy":"new_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_tags?post=37583"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=37583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}