Study On Socio Scientific Issue In Social Media

As the social media are developing fast nowadays, more and more people discuss hot topics through the platforms. Recently, genetically modified food(GMO), which is a good representative of socio scientific issues(SSI), has boosted discussions on social media. In order to investigate specific characteristics in social media of which socio scientific issues are communicating with, we have collected and analyzed GMO related articles and corresponding follow-ups from guokr.com and bbs.tianya.cn using content analysis method. All the articles we collected were posted between July 1st of 2013 and June 30 th of 2014. According to the study, we found that the discussion about socioscientific issues in social media are not only limited to science or technology, but also involved a lot of social topics. During the communication, much negative moods are expressed, which may turn to personal attack sometimes. Most users can prove their views with one or two methods, however, for the argumentation ability, there is a certain gap among different users. Most users do not reject communication with those people who have diverse viewpoints. If there are emotional factors, the discussion might lead to polarization rather than come to a consensus. The achievement of consensus or the drop of polarization trend comes only when participants join the discussions with rational attitudes.