Information Pathways in Online Science Communication: The Role of Platform Actors and News Media

TL;DR

This study analyzes how online social media and news media interact to shape science communication during COVID-19, revealing influential actors, coordinated amplification, and differing engagement with scientific papers based on credibility.

Contribution

It uncovers the complex pathways and actor networks that influence the dissemination of scientific information across social media and news outlets during a major health crisis.

Findings

Influential Twitter accounts are mainly credentialed individuals.

A coordinated network amplifies contrarian experts promoting pseudoscience.

News media tend to report on studies after social media superspreaders highlight them.

Abstract

Online discussions of science involve complex interactions among experts, news media, and social media users as they interpret and disseminate scientific findings. While prior work has examined these actors in isolation, their interplay in shaping science communication remains poorly understood. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, we analyze 1.24M tweets and 211k news articles that reference pandemic-related scientific papers. We find that the most influential Twitter accounts in this discourse are predominantly individuals with medical or research credentials. However, we also identify a coordinated network that disproportionately amplifies a small set of prominent credentialed experts who advance contrarian, anti-consensus positions on vaccines, lockdowns, and related topics. The papers promoted by these influential actors substantially overlap with those covered by news media, but with key differences: pro-consensus experts primarily engage with studies featured by mainstream and medical outlets, whereas contrarian experts align more closely with papers promoted by low-quality, pseudoscientific, or conspiratorial sources. Notably, news outlets tend to report on scientific studies after they have been highlighted by social media superspreaders. Together, these findings reveal multi-level pathways of information flow and coordinated amplification structures that shape science communication across social media and news, offering new insights into the dynamics of the broader information ecosystem.