Information Society and social media in the context of scientific communication

Abstract

Introduction: The Information Society is based on the tripod “information”, “information technologies” and “telecommunications”, whose phenomena are studied by different scientific fields, including Information Science. This article intends to understand the impacts of called Information Society in the context of Scientific Communication. The main objective is to investigate how technological advances and the use of social media influenced the Metric Studies of Information in relation to Altmetrics. It discusses the Information Society, information and technology, presenting some data on social media and social networks.  Method:  It adopts a descriptive-exploratory approach of a qualitative nature, based on a literature review. Results: As a result, it considers that technological advances can be used both positively and negatively, but, in general, they help in the development of science and  the sharing of information, because the channels used for such dissemination have been significantly expanded and, thus, resulted in the emergence of a new subfield of Metric Studies, aiming recisely to study the phenomena of these new channels of scientific dissemination. Conclusions: Finally, it understands that the development of science, based on technologies, especially communication through social media, causes Information Science to be in constant advance, Altmetrics being the result of the expansion of science communication in media considered as non-formal.