Information science and the media

Abstract

The transformations in the field of media, driven by Information and Communication Technology, deriving from technical procedures and language, have facilitated an increase in the flow of information, as well as its visibility and circulation in society. Most importantly, the media have become strategic in contemporary societies. In spite of this, the relation between the field of Information Science and the subject remains little known. Thus, this article seeks to understand the theoretical and empirical foundations of media studies in Information Science. In particular, our focus was to identify the temporal and thematic behaviors of studies concerning the media in Information Science. It is an exploratory study of the bibliometrics and scientometrics with a quali-quantitative approach. The research universe was composed of scientific production on media in articles related to the area indexed in the Web of Science. Content analysis was used to understand the objects of the studies identified. The results enabled us to map the profile of the temporal and thematic behavior of the studies, locate the period of publication, areas of knowledge with production that are related to Information Science, and the most frequent issues addressed. Given the complexity of the topic, a more profound epistemological and pragmatic approach is envisioned for future production.