Miriam C. GoldsteinCalifornia Sea Grant/U.S. House of RepresentativesScience Leadership Program, University of Toronto

May 3, 2013

Online Outreach for Scientists

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Jeff Atwood, codinghorror.com

The internet: friend or foe?

Why use the internet?

1

100

10,000

1,000,000

100,000,000

Scientific Conference

College Class

Scientific American

Local Paper

National Paper

TwitterBlogs

Facebook

log

(Mon

thly

Aud

ienc

e)

Traditional MediaNew Media

Bik & Goldstein 2013, PLOS Biology

Why use the internet?A look on a linear scale: new media dominates

0

175,000,000

350,000,000

525,000,000

700,000,000

Scientific Conference

College Class

Scientific American

Local Paper

National Paper

TwitterBlogs

Facebook

Mon

thly

Aud

ienc

e

Traditional MediaNew Media

Bik & Goldstein 2013, PLOS Biology

One model of the online science ecosystem

Rob Helpy-Chalk

Caveat: science is a small subset of online world

xkcd.com/802

“Blogosphere”

?

Science blogs not even on

map

Caveat: the online world is also limited

Define goals before selecting social media tool

Examples of goals:

• Disseminate information about a discrete event, such as a field expedition

• Build a community of your scientific peers

• Further specific policy or education goals (e.g., climate change legislation)

• Communicate your science directly to a general audience

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Different goals lead to different outreach strategies

Bik & Goldstein 2013, PLOS Biology

Goals & time committment determine tools

Bik & Goldstein 2013, PLOS Biology