Anyone with a sociological imagination can make a difference and together we can change the world! In this inspirational talk, the founder and editor of Sociological Images traces its humble beginnings and surprising impact. Drawing on inspiration from C. Wright Mills, she argues that each and every one of us can contribute to ensuring that sociology guides our national conversation and shapes our policy.

1. TOGETHER,
WE CAN
CHANGE
THE WORLD
The Power of
Public Sociology
Lisa Wade, PhD
Sociological Images
t: lisawade
f: lisawadephd
i: lisawadephd

2. TOGETHER,
WE CAN
CHANGE
THE WORLD
The power of
public sociology

3. Sociology is “in many ways… a terrible lesson; in
many ways a magnificent one.”
- C. Wright Mills

5. Sociological Images encourages people to exercise and
develop their sociological imaginations with
discussions of compelling visuals that span the breadth
of sociological inquiry.
Mission

19. Reach
 SocImages: 4,771,031 visits in 2014
 TSP: 20,822th most popular website in the U.S.
out of ~1 billion active websites
Post Secret 20,100
Color Lines 19,286
Ms. Magazine 20,168
Cute Overload 15,745
Freakonomics 17,261
Reach

20. Reach
Reach

21. Reach
Organic searches:
Reach
blurred lines (rape) 3,364 aspic
275
porn (various) 2,261 tough guise 2
275
ice cream truck song 983 framing child
deviance 243
wate on 584 Down Syndrome life
marginalization 523 …expectancy
237
(history of) high heels 517 straight pride
Halloween 234

22. Reach
Direct links:
Reach
huffington post 53,229 pacific standard 7,664
feedly 35,727 wonderzine 7,321
bitch 12,186 skepchick 5,958
cracked 12,026 slate 5,217
TV tropes 9,450 already pretty
4,673
NPR 9,178 GQ 4,453
jezebel 9,110 insider higher ed
3,910
feministing 8,690 business insider 3,524
buzzfeed 8,346 cosmopolitan 3,333

23. Reach
Social media:
Reach
facebook 1,436,533 quora
952
twitter 106,372 weebly
927
reddit 70,223 netvibes 413
pinterest 65,126 linkedin 403
tumblr 53,699 vkontakte 395
stumbleupon 51,936 stack exchange
301
digg 20,531 yahoo answers
295

24. Reach
 Pinterest: 15,000+ followers, 597 visits/day
 Twitter: 23,000+ followers, 71 tweets/post
 Tumblr: 24,000+ followers, 1,083 notes/post
 Facebook: 78,000+ followers, 296 likes/post
138 shares/post
27,219 views/post
Reach

37. …

38. Reach
How to get started
 Inquire with existing sites…
 …and also have your own
 Open social media accounts
Tips!

39. Reach
How to do a good job
 Keep it sociological
 Be timely
 Keep it short
 Expect to be bad at it for a while
 Develop a voice
Tips!

40. Reach
Things to keep in mind
 Being wrong in public is best!
Tips!

43. Reach
Things to keep in mind
 Being wrong in public is best!
 Being visible comes with a cost
Tips!

45. Just a tipoff, to let you filthy feminazi CUNTS know that we are exposing
you, you fucking pieces of shit... see [some guy’s] piece in [redacted], a
leading men's rights magazine site, and boy does it expose you and your
fucking feminazi cunt blog for what you are.... nothing but awful screaming
feminazi harpy cunts who need to suck a dick and calm down... you evil
twats...
Aside from this tipoff, all I will say to such feminazi CUNTS like you is,
suck my fucking dick you awful feminazi cunts. FUCK I HATE YOU, AND
EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR!!!!! DOWN WITH FEMINAZI
COCKSUCKING CUNTS WHO I HOPE GET BREAST CANCER.
Eat shit.

46. Reach
Things to keep in mind
 Being wrong in public is best!
 Being visible comes with a cost
 But sociology matters
Tips!

47. TOGETHER,
WE CAN
CHANGE
THE WORLD
Conclusion
Lisa Wade, PhD
Sociological Images
t: lisawade
f: lisawadephd
i: lisawadephd

48. TOGETHER,
WE CAN
CHANGE
THE WORLD
Questions
Lisa Wade, PhD
Sociological Images
t: lisawade
f: lisawadephd
i: lisawadephd