This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Rogers, R. Articles by Marres, N. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Landscaping climate change: a mapping technique for understanding science and technology debates on the World Wide Web

Department of Science Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Royal College of Art, London, U.K., Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, Netherlands, rogers{at}chem.uva.nl

Noortje Marres

Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, noortje.marres{at}janvaneyck.nl

New World Wide Web (web) mapping techniques may inform and ultimately facilitate meaningful participation in current science and technology debates. The technique described here "landscapes" a debate by displaying key "webby" relationships between organizations. "Debate-scaping" plots two organizational positionings—the organizations' inter-hyperlinking as well as their discursive affinities. The underlying claim is that hyperlinking and discursive maps provide a semblance of given socio-epistemic networks on the web. The climate change debate on the web in November 1998 serves as a test case. Three findings are reported. First, distinctive .com, .gov and .org linking styles were found. Second, organizations take care in making hyperlinks, leading to the premise that the hyperlinks (and the "missing links") reveal which issue and debate framings organizations acknowledge, and find acceptable and unacceptable. Finally, it was learned that organizations take substantive positions and address other organizations' positions. Thus, we found the makings of a "debate" that may be mapped. Scenarios of use to support new public participation techniques and experiments are discussed by way of conclusion.

Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 9, No. 2, 141-163 (2000)
DOI: 10.1088/0963-6625/9/2/304


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Ackland Social Network Services as Data Sources and Platforms for e-Researching Social Networks Social Science Computer Review, November 1, 2009; 27(4): 481 - 492. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. Mager Mediated health: sociotechnical practices of providing and using online health information New Media Society, November 1, 2009; 11(7): 1123 - 1142. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. Stein Social movement web use in theory and practice: a content analysis of US movement websites New Media Society, August 1, 2009; 11(5): 749 - 771. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. P. Biddix and Han Woo Park Online networks of student protest: the case of the living wage campaign New Media Society, December 1, 2008; 10(6): 871 - 891. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Wojcieszak False Consensus Goes Online: Impact of Ideologically Homogeneous Groups on False Consensus Public Opin Q, December 1, 2008; 72(4): 781 - 791. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Marres The Issues Deserve More Credit: Pragmatist Contributions to the Study of Public Involvement in Controversy Social Studies of Science, October 1, 2007; 37(5): 759 - 780. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. M. Schneider and K. A. Foot The Web as an Object of Study New Media Society, February 1, 2004; 6(1): 114 - 122. [PDF]

				B. V. Lewenstein Editorial: A decade of Public Understanding Public Understanding of Science, January 1, 2002; 11(1): 1 - 4. [PDF]