140 Characters is the New Black (part 1)
Engaging academics in social media.
140 Characters is the new black, or perhaps the new leather elbow patch, for the eager and active academic. Unfortunately, most academics have been slow in grasping this realisation.
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On February 15th 2014, the New York Times published, “Professors, We Need You!” by columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Nicholas Kristof. Kristof asserts that “professors today have a growing number of tools available to educate the public, from online courses to blogs to social media. Yet academics have been slow to cast pearls through Twitter and Facebook”. He reminds that it was nonscholars who instilled a breath of fresh air into ‘lectures’ through the internet phenomenon, TED Talk. Online lecture series which have no particular 'research impact’ but are talk of the town and a bragging right when placed in a room of academics.
So why aren’t academics in like with social media? Kristof responds that most Ph.D. programs reproduce a culture which “glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience”. A culture of “exclusivity” - writing and publishing for each other and superiors as opposed to the public. This is at odds with social media; an operation built on openness, public discourse, information sharing, collaboration, networks and virtual communities.
Probably what academics imagine Twitter being like
I would also assert that perhaps academics view social media as immature, frivolous, procrastination, cats and unacademic. A view that, admittedly, may sometimes be true. However, social media’s birthplace is the World Wide Web and the possibilities are therefore boundless. Niche communities pop up faster than you can retweet your favourite academics’ latest musing. And yes, academics are on Twitter! It’s also worth mentioning that The London School of Economics is so far ahead of the curb that they even have a “Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities” guide made available.
Front page of LSE’s Twitter Guide for Academics & Researchers
So if LSE can do it, why can’t we here at The University of Melbourne? If harnessed correctly, social media has the potential to revolutionise the way academics see, do and understand research. In fact, the World’s first Twitter only academic journal is already in the works!
In part 2 of “140 Characters is the New Black” I’ll very quickly go through three social media channels (Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube) and outline some handy tips and tricks to get you started on your new-found academic journey!
And in the conclusion to the trilogy, part 3 of “140 Characters is the New Black” will examine the road ahead. What are the practical things we can do to get professors and academic staff out of the nest and tweeting.
Research can be ‘bazaar’, we’re here to help! Don’t understand how? Read our mission statement. Flick us a tweet, watch a video, check out our page and follow our blog-posts - both formal and fun. Even better than the virtual, meet like minded researchers at one of our events. Come engage with the Melbourne research community!
Get started by contacting your discipline’s ‘Research Community Coordinator’ who can help you learn new tools and have fun collaborating with fellow researchers! Here’s the full list.
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