IQ-UFG WEBSCIENCE: THE ARROW OF TIME AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TRANSPANDEMIC

Abstract

The meaning of time has been a recurring theme in popular science articles in different media, although they do not consider the temporal progressivity, represented by the "arrow of time", nor the influence of multiple temporal scales on the power and mechanisms of public engagement. In this article, the performance indicators of the webinars of the WebCiência IQ-UFG channel on YouTube^Ò were analyzed over multiple time scales, using asymmetric eigenvector (AEM) maps. The results allowed us to incorporate the unidirectionality of the time vector between the webinars, preserving the temporal structure of causality. The temporal trend (large scale) represented the transition from remote and face-to-face teaching in the transpandemic, while the strategy and resources made available by the management team were important in engaging the public, with emphasis on the selected themes (intermediate scale). The AEM modeled both the multiscale temporal influence and the increasing variance in time of views, likes,  and comments of webinars, contributing to the evaluation of the temporal effects associated with social media engagement.