La investigación en periodismo y covid-19 en España: mayor impacto académico en citas, aproximaciones metodológicas clásicas e importancia temática de la desinformación

Bertran Salvador-Mata; Sergi Cortiñas-Rovira; Victor Herrero-Solana

doi:10.4185/rlcs-2023-2001

Authors

Bertran Salvador-Mata Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Sergi Cortiñas-Rovira Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Victor Herrero-Solana Universidad de Granada https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1142-5074

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/rlcs-2023-2001

Keywords:

journalism, covid-19, InCites, citation topic, impact, research in communication

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of this research is to analyze how the covid-19 was studied by the academic discipline of journalism, regarding its impact, methodology, thematic and source, and their repercussions on cites. Methodology. A universe of 124 articles is obtained through algorithmic grouping by InCites (journalism micro topic, Spanish affiliation and covid-19 keyword). A bibliometric analysis is performed, accompanied by a qualitative content analysis to generate common codes in methodology, themes, and use of sources. Quantitative analysis of co-occurrence and descriptive correlations between the three variables studied and their citations are carried out. Results. Articles on covid-19 received five times more citations than the rest. The majority of cites (86%) are concentrated in the first-published articles. Classic methodologies were mostly used (49% content analysis, 16% surveys). Bibliographic review (13 cites/article) and the advanced automated analysis techniques (10.75 cites/article) are the ones that receive the most citations. The main theme is disinformation (26%, 11,0 cites/article) and the most common source is the press (27%, 6,15 cites/article), although social networks (22%, 9.12 cites/article) and fact-checkers (10%, 8.50 cites/article) generated a greater impact. Discussion and Conclusions. The articles that were published during the first months generated the highest volume of citations. In journalism research, a recurrent use of classic strategies (content analysis, press) was found, although the slightly more novel approaches (advanced automated analysis techniques) are the ones that produced the most citations. Misinformation becomes one of the key issues in journalism studies. Unusual methodologies and themes receive practically no citations.

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Author Biographies

Bertran Salvador-Mata, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain).

Is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain, and a third-year doctoral student in the same university. He has authored ten publications in indexed journals and has more than 269 citations in Google Scholar. He is currently co-director of the journal Comunicació. Revista de Recerca i d'Anàlisi, included in Web of Science-JCR. His research has focused on the communicative study of pseudosciences, journalism as an academic discipline in the Spanish context, and new forms of journalism (artificial intelligence, automated journalism, and others). He is a researcher at the Observatory of Scientific Communication (UPF) and is part of the GRECC group (UPF).

bertran.salvador@upf.edu

Índice H: 3

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0499-0350

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=V52uHlwAAAAJ&hl=es

Scopus ID: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=56297493900

Sergi Cortiñas-Rovira, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain).

Associate Professor, accredited as Full Professor, in the Department of Communication at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He has published around fifty research articles in the fields of journalism, scientific communication, sports journalism, and pseudoscience. He holds a PhD in Social Communication and has degrees in Chemistry and Journalism. He is also a professor at UPF-BSM (Barcelona School of Management). He is the director of the Observatory of Scientific Communication and is part of the GRECC group (UPF).

sergi.cortinas@upf.edu

Índice H: 20

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7252-5418

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=Mp4GHo8AAAAJ&hl=ca

Scopus ID: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55857016700

Victor Herrero-Solana, Universidad de Granada

Department of Information and Communication, University of Granada (Spain).

Víctor Herrero Solana is a professor in the Department of Information and Communication at the University of Granada. His area of specialization is data visualization, evaluation of scientific activity, impact in the media, and technology surveillance with patents. He has more than 150 publications on Google Scholar and has participated in 26 research projects, being the principal investigator of three of them. He is the leader of the SCImago-UGR group.

victorhs@ugr.es

Índice H: 33

Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1142-5074

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OKIleUEAAAAJ

Scopus ID: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55667326400

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