November 30, 2012

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Audiences, Trolls, and Getting Some Science Onto the Internet

By Kate Clancy

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Earlier this week, the Women in Science group at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign convened a panel on using social media to promote science. Melanie Tannenbaum, Bill Hammack, Joanne Manaster and I were the panelists, and Jo Holley was the organizer.

There were a few things that I found interesting about our varying responses as panelists to the questions we were asked. That variation seemed to map onto the kind of social media we used, and the audience we sought to reach. I am guessing Melanie and I reach the most educated audience, and that the vast majority are adults. Joanne and Bill both have a significant cadre of younger fans – I liked Bill’s analysis that those who watch his great YouTube videos are young gamers… and old gamers. I have a feeling that despite variation in age or education, we are all reaching a highly intelligent, motivated audience.

Anyway, the rest of my comments are interspersed through a Storify I've made, where you’ll find more links, pictures, and (almost) full video of the panel. Enjoy! (I cannot seem to get the Storify to embed, so just follow this link for now.)

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[View the story "Nov 26th Panel on Using Social Media to Promote Science, University of Illinois" on Storify]

I am Dr. Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. On top of being an academic, I am a mother, a wife, an athlete, a labor activist, a sister, and a daughter. My beautiful blog banner was made by Jacqueline Dillard. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. Rather, our environment pushes and pulls our genes into different reaction norms that help us predict behavior and physiology. But, as humans make our environments, we have the ability to change the very things that change us. We often have more control over our biology than we may think.

More by Kate Clancy

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