A study of interactions on science communication blogs in Brazil

Abstract

The interactions that happen in science communication blogs between the authors of blogs and their readers, as well as between the readers themselves are investigated here. In this way, we seek to better understand the relationship between science communication blogs and their audiences, and the science communication models that are actually used by them. From the three most active blogs of the ScienceBlogs Brazil blog portal, comments were selected and analyzed over two months in order to understand these interactions and seek to recognize these readers. For the analysis and classification of these comments, content analysis (Bardin, 2011) was used as well as the categories of Kouper (2010). It was observed that there is an intense interaction in those environments, with frequent exchanges between readers themselves and not just between readers and blog authors. The contributions, however, show that most of the people who interact are also bloggers or even scientists or students from science-related careers. Although blogs are very propitious spaces for the fast science communication of hot topics and open debates, blogs are still spaces of little participation by the lay public.