We are pleased to announce the publication of a new paper from our laboratory in the journal Social Network Analysis and Mining. Our latest study examines how scientific evidence, mainstream media, and social media collectively shape the perception of popular diets, comparing the discourse surrounding eight major diets across Web of Science, The New York Times, and Reddit. The paper analyzes nearly 800,000 documents spanning close to five decades, making it one of the most comprehensive cross-platform diet discourse analyses to date.

Among our key findings, the Mediterranean diet dominates both scientific and news media coverage, yet receives surprisingly little attention on Reddit. Intermittent fasting is the only diet that exhibits significant cross-platform information flow: scientific publications influence news media coverage, which in turn predicts the discourse on social media. More broadly, scientific discourse tends to be considerably more positive in tone, while discussions on social media are substantially more polarized.

Beyond the specific findings, the study also introduces a novel framework for tracking the dissemination of scientific knowledge across academic, media, and online communities, shedding light on how health information flows through today's increasingly fragmented communication ecosystem.

Congratulations to the authors: Csaba Kiss, Ĭmren Ece Titiz, Gwen Billy, and Dr. Roland Molontay.

The full article is available here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13278-026-01628-x