Mind Maps: Mapping the Web Vision of Neuroplasticity

• In Event: Science Communication - I: Digital Media

Abstract

Google has now become the first stop for many people’s health and science research, making the content of the front page results an essential ontological concern in the public understanding of scientific issues. In order to analyze the knowledges the search engine produces for a given search, I propose using issue mapping, an actor-network theory inspired method, to map the hyperlink associations between the top websites involved with a scientific issue onto a social network graph. As a case study, I used digital tools to map out a “web vision” of the top search results for a given Google search of neuroplasticity, a paradigmatic concept in neuroscience with significant public appeal. In my presentation, I will refer to a mapping of the relative centrality of actors in the network in order to show which issues are most represented, as well as how these issues interrelate. This map suggests that depending on where users begin their search, they will be exposed to highly differentiated ideas about neuroplasticity, from self-help to chronic health research. Since certain websites tended to cluster, hyperlinking exclusively to each other, this means that individuals who begin their search on these websites are unlikely to be exposed to issues in other parts of the network. This has important implications for how neuroscientists working with neuroplasticity can understand the public perception of their work. In the final part of my presentation, the utility of issue mapping for science communications will be explored alongside the potential limitations of the method.

Author

• Rod M Abhari, University of Wisconsin