The socio-topical landscape of shark research and its visibility in the media

The goal of this research collaboration between the QSS lab and the Environmental Information Use and Influence (EIUI) group is to contribute to the discussion by providing an empirical basis for assessing the unequal representation and attention that different bodies of literature receive in social media specifically. Our research questions are:

• What distinct communities can be identified within the shark scholarship?
• How is scientific attention distributed across these communities?
• How is media attention distributed across these communities?
• To what extent do researchers themselves contribute to the dissemination the research on social media?

We will then discuss the implications of a potentially skewed coverage of media attention for policy and the societal understanding of an issue, and the role that information literacy may play in improving science-society interactions on social media and improve policy and decision-making processes.