Abstract
This study employs content analysis and social network analysis to investigate the degree of de-Westernization in the journalism research of the BRICS (acronym of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations. A total of 10,929 citations between 2010 and 2019 from five top academic journals of journalism research were analyzed. It is found that Anglosphere scholarship dominates the journalism knowledge production across the five countries. The BRICS journalism researchers primarily relied on domestic and Western scholarships to produce knowledge while they were largely isolated from each other and other researchers in the Global South. Three types of citation practice have been discussed, including closed, dependent, and diversified citations. The concept of linguistic segregation is discussed to explain the citation patterns of the BRICS journalism researchers, especially the central role of Anglosphere scholarship. Furthermore, inter-regional referencing and international cooperation are suggested as potential directions to promote the process of de-Westernization and to deepen globalization in the field of journalism research. Finally, limitations and suggestions are also presented.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Minwei Ai, upon reasonable request.
Code availability
The R programming codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Minwei Ai, upon reasonable request.
Notes
Details can be found from the website of eLIBRARY.RU, https://bit.ly/3q2VhOI.
The data of impact factor was retrieved from the website of cnki.net, https://bit.ly/3hKoNVI.
Details can be found from the website of South Africa Journals Database, https://bit.ly/2CmQRyt.
Details can be found from the website of Indian Citation Index, https://bit.ly/36JmbDK.
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Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by MM. The analysis was conducted by MA. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MA and both authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ai, M., Masood, M. De-Westernization in journalism research: a content and network analysis of the BRICS journals. Scientometrics 126, 9477–9498 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04194-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04194-5