Diffusion of News about Research

Abstract

Analysis of media coverage of articles published in four elite scholarly journals, and the frequency of subsequent citation of those journal articles by other scholars, found evidence of news diffusion of the research to scientists. Breaking news coverage by twenty-four daily newspapers of articles from the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Science was associated with more frequent citations; coverage by network television was not. Breaking news coverage by the New York Times, when considered with coverage by television and other newspapers, was unrelated to citation rates.