Home About Me My Calendar My Diagrams My Garden Going Green My Research Activities My Research Publications

Hypermedia Online Publishing: the Transformation of the Scholarly Journal

2.5.4 Communication in science

This derives from the work of Leah Lievrouw ([Lievrouw&Carley1990], [Lievrouw, 1992]). The underlying conceptual framework consists of a generalised communication cycle and the concept of social representations.

The communication cycle has three progressive stages: conceptualisation (involving largely interpersonal communications processes within a small group), documentation (where the processes are more organized and involve larger groups), and popularization (where the communication processes encourage the acculturation of ideas and involve potentially millions of people). Electronic journals would be part of the documentation stage, while email lists and discussion groups might be more relevant during the conceptualisation stage. The scientific communication cycle concept is based on the idea of a communication process (particular activities or behaviours that facilitate the sharing and construction of meaning) and communication structures (the relationships between individuals with these shared meanings). Social representations derive from social psychological theory and relate to ways of understanding the world and the nature of social reality.

While a useful way of examining the scientific communication in general, Lievrouw's framework applies at too high a level to be directly useful for this thesis.

Last modified: Monday, 11-Dec-2017 14:41:14 AEDT