Symbiosis Evolution of Science Communication Ecosystem Based on Social Media: A Lotka–Volterra Model-Based Simulation

Abstract

Social media has become an important way for science communication. Some scholars have examined how to help scientists engage with social media from operational training, policy guidance, and social media services improving. The main contribution of this study is to construct a symbiosis evolution model of science communication ecosystem (SCE) between scientists and social media platforms based on the symbiosis theory and the Lotka–Volterra model to discuss the evolution of their symbiotic patterns and population size under different symbiosis coefficients. The results indicate that (1) the size of the symbiosis coefficients determines the equilibrium outcome of the symbiosis evolution of scientists and social media platforms; (2) scientists and social media platforms can promote each other’s population size under the mutualism pattern, which can achieve sustainable science communication; (3) “1 + 1 > 2” effect can only be achieved under the symmetric mutualism pattern and the growth of scientists and social media platforms is more stable and sufficient than that of other patterns. The findings will provide additional perspectives for promoting the sustainable development of science communication based on social media.