I gave this talk at York University's Faculty of Science Science Communication Workshop on Wednesday December 7 2016. I review some research about how scientists use social media and suggest ways that scientists can practice communicating science.

1. Communicating Science
With Social
Media
Dawn Bazely @dawnbazely
Professor
Biology Department

2. WWW & Social Networks are
Mature
❖ When did you send your first email?
❖ Me: 1989
❖ When did you first post PowerPoint lecture decks online?
❖ Me: 2001
❖ Who is Tim Berners-Lee?
Context

3. WWW & Social Networks are
Mature
❖ Who is Tim Berners-Lee?
❖ This balding man who invented the world wide web!
Context

4. In what year was the 2010 Social Network movie
set?
2003
Context

5. Twitter is 10 years old
Context

6. Like with the internet…
ContextJeff Ogden (W163), Wikimedia: Internet penetration 2012

7. scientists find social media useful
Context

8. –Oxford English Living Dictionary
“Websites and applications that enable users to
create and share content or to participate in social
networking.”
Definition of Social Media

9. Next 10 mins of #SciComm with
#SoMe
❖ How scientists use
social media
❖ Research benefits
❖ Teaching benefits
❖ 👣Next steps:
perhaps try
tweeting from
@yorkuscientists
Context

10. How scientists use #SoMe

11. Choose your Channel 📺📻📡
❖ For Scientists:
❖ Twitter
❖ Blogging
❖ Facebook 😱
How scientists use #SoMe

12. Academic Twitter
❖ Discuss teaching & research
❖ Find out what’s going on with other
scientists
❖ To follow conferences via the
keyword hashtags eg
#OnBioSummit
❖ Increase publication impact/uptake
❖ As a research & teaching tool eg
Paige Jarreau
(@FromTheLabBench)
❖ Data collection via social media
How scientists use #SoMe

13. Van Noorden. 2014. Online collaboration: Scientists
and the social network. Nature. 512:126-129
How scientists use #SoMe

15. How scientists use #SoMe
Victoria Costello of PLOS Blogs (2015):

16. How scientists use #SoMe

17. How scientists use #SoMe

18. How scientists use #SoMe

19. Twitter as a Research Tool
❖ Twitter as a Tool for Health Research:
a Systematic Review.
❖ Sinnenberg et al 2016, American
Journal of Public Health
❖ doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303512
❖ Conclusions… “Many data elements
discernible from a user’s Twitter profile,
especially demographics, have been
underreported in the literature and can
provide new opportunities to
characterize the users whose data are
analyzed in these studies. Twitter-
based health research is a growing
field funded by a diversity of
organizations”
How scientists use #SoMe

20. What students learn from tweeting &
blogging
❖ Raises awareness of students’
electronic footprints
❖ General knowledge ⬆️
❖ Reading ⬆️
❖ Writing ⬆️
❖ Engagement ⬆️

21. Students learned proper Lab Methods in
BIOL 2010
❖ They were using far more
pricey Parafilm to wrap petri
plates than we had anticipated
❖ I made Vines showing the right
technique, with Biology
technician, Debbie, and we
reduced Parafilm wastage
hugely (and saved on lab.
budget)

23. Scott Library:
LB 1044.87 S46 2013
‘Although there are challenges to
overcome, the authors of this
book see social media as the
next logical step in education’s
evolution in order to “meet the
needs of diverse students in
today’s classrooms”’ (p. 188).
Annie Phillips Newton’s review of
K K Seo (2013) in The Journal of
Social Media in Society 1(1):59-
62.

24. 👣🐾👣🐾👣🐾👣
❖ Consider taking over @yorkuscientists for a week
❖ See list of dates & fill in this form with your preferences
❖ Try a Twitter assignment in your course (here’s the
outline for my Biology course Twitter assignment)
❖ check out Roy Peter Clark’s book, How to Write Short, &
Jim Woodgett’s #SciComm talk slide deck from his 2015
talk at YorkU Faculty of Science

26. Me? I’m experimenting with Instagram —
I’m finding it quite tough to master