The representation of graphene in the online press of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain

Abstract

Graphene is the first two-dimensional material discovered by humans. It was isolated for the first time in 2004 and is being established as a revolutionary material for the 21st century. This study presents an analysis of the quantitative and qualitative contents from all news about graphene published online in The New York Times (United States), The Guardian (United Kingdom), and El País (Spain) from October 2004 to October 2017. We evaluate the media’s coverage of a new, revolutionary material such as graphene in terms of the volume of news items per year and the authorship and treatment, thematic focus, and content of the articles—from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. This analysis offers insights into the knowledge transfer about graphene and can serve as a model to the materials science communication field.