| With the rapid development of Internet technology and a great increase of netizens in China, Internet has been a significant way of science popularization and dissemination. The website of science popularization breaks the bondage of traditional way to popularize science with its plain and lucid explanation of science, various forms and equality between communicators and audiences. Relying on Internet technology, these websites embrace enormous potential. However, popular science websites of our country still count on support of government and scientific organizations, non-government popular science websites remains a depression. Compared with similar websites abroad, the resource of information, form, content and technology of domestic websites of science popularization should be further enhanced. This paper conducts a comparative study of two non-government websites, Songshuhui and Howstuffworks. The research tries to analyze their differences and similarities, merits and drawbacks, to sum up factors of success, providing an example for science popular websites of China.The first part is to compare layout of pages, arrangement of columns, edition of texts and pictures. Through the comparison, a conclusion is drawn: the website of Songshuhui tends to use fewer pictures, hyperlinks, videos and distinctive columns and fails to be diversified.Moreover, the scientific texts of each websites possess several characteristics respectively. In terms of the source of text, Howstuffworks puts much emphasis on originality of text, whereas the texts on Songshuhui.net are mostly translations and copied information. The choice of subject of Howstuffworks differs from Songshuhui with its wide range and equal choice of each subject. Among the massive topics, Songshuhui prefers hot debated subjects; Howstuffworks values audience-oriented themes which cater for most of its audiences' need. As for headlines of scientific texts, Howstuffworks bears a pattern which embodied with distinct features that is easy to recognize, whereas Songshuhui demonstrates diversity and complexity in headlines. The language of scientific texts on each websites enjoys vividness and entertainment, Howstuffworks pays much attention to its story-telling and conversational way of illustration, which makes science be closer to audience.The information dissemination mechanism of two websites is much of the same, but the transmission and operating mode differs from each other. The transmission mode of Songshuhui attaches great importance to audiences' participation of content production, while Howstuffworks sets a strict standard to supervise content production where no audiences' direct participation is allowed.The non-government websites of science popularization of China should overcome the current problems, insist on originality and improve the forms of science information. Innovating distinctive columns, enhancing development patterns and communicating with excellent websites abroad to share scientific information are effective methods for improvement. |
PDF Full Text Request