How do media mention research papers? Structural analysis of blogs and news networks using citation coupling

Abstract This study aims to explore the connections between news and blogs based on the co-mention of research papers. This approach attempts to generate several network graphs that show the structural topology of blogs and news media, stressing possible differences between blogs and news when they come to co-mention research publications. 3,810 blogs and 3,387 news outlets that cite 100,529 research articles were displayed in network graphs using citation coupling. Country, language and thematic category were added to each medium. The findings show that the network of blogs and news is characterized by scale-free properties. The news network is highly centralized by general-interest news outlets from English-speaking countries, while the blogs network depicts a less centralized and low-density network, shaped by well-defined thematic clusters that rest on prestigious specialized hubs. The study concludes that these structures have important implications for the media impact of scholarly publications. In the case of news, the highly centralized model on general-interest news outlets acts as echo chambers amplifying the attention of publications. In the case of blog, the impact is less and would be borne by specialized blogs in specific thematic areas.