UCSC SCIENCE WRITING PROGRAMMAY 4 , 2010

DAVID HARRIS@PHYSICSDAVID

SLAC NATIONAL ACCELERATOR LAB ORATORYAND

SYMMETRY MAGAZINE

Social media for science writers

Your social media use

Who in this room does each of these?1. uses facebook2. uses twitter3. uses LinkedIn4. has a blog5. is in some specialist social network6. uses social bookmarking7. regularly posts video/audio?

Why care about social media?

Our trade is informationInformation is flowing in new ways due to

social mediaWe need to understand those ways to take

advantage of themIt gives us new ways to think about what we

do

Evolution of Information Ecosystems

Authority relationships

Trust relationships

Personal networks Trusted authorities

The secret life of social media

Key points:It often doesn’t work the way you imagine or

the way it claims toIt can be quite complicated and you really

need to understand it to take advantage of itSocial bookmarking as a case study

See a full presentation on this from NASW 2009 at: http://bit.ly/9dip5J

Fundamental rule of social media

It’s just a tool

or

It’s a tactic not a strategy

or

The technology is not the sociology

Corollary of the fundamental rule

Social media is often not about the content itself: It is often the meta-content or the distribution

Social media offers a chance for you to be entrepreneurial in reaching new audiences

You’ve written the story, now get it to the people

Social media can be particularly useful to science writers as science interest is a non-geographically-specified niche.

Use the right tool for the right purpose

Q: When would you use a facebook status update vs twitter update?

Q: What’s the main difference between facebook and MySpace?

Q: Why would you blog with LiveJournal vs Blogger vs WordPress vs … ?

Q: What’s the difference between email and a twitter stream?

Q: How do individuals matter in social media?

It’s the community, stupid

The use of social media tools is inextricably linked with the kinds of communities you wish to include, create, connect with, or be part of.

The sociology is not really new in most cases. However, the power of the tools is much greater.

There is a loose community of science fans who previously could only coalesce around popular science magazines. What does social media offer?

Journalists’ concerns

How does a journalist navigate the private-public spectrum that replaces the old private/public separation? (Risks and opportunities.)

What is happening to the gatekeeper role of journalism? (Middleman problem. The importance of filters.)

Can journalists beat the sources to breaking news any more? (The role of scoops. Scientists who blog.)

What value does a journalist add? (Will “just the facts” cut it? Content vs. context vs. analysis)

Business models

Like old media, still predominantly ad-based This means, it’s all about eyeballs on ads, and

therefore about boosting traffic Increased traffic is used as a proxy for just about

everything else, but how valid is that? Does it matter if it’s valid?

Some new models appearing Content is a loss leader in the form of community

building. Monetized through other options, such as events. Example: thebolditalic.com

Relying on sources for content such as Journalism/PIO partnerships. Example: US News & World Report/NSF

10 uses of social media for science writers

1. Finding/tracking breaking events2. Reporting on events as rapidly as possible3. Observing remote events/conferences4. Participating in remote events/conferences5. Finding ideas and commissioning stories6. Finding sources7. Building community (among peers & readers)8. “Meeting” new people -> meeting new people9. Hearing about useful events10. Spreading ideas, generating secondary

pickup/stories

Adoption of social media by science writers

Where are the science writers’ social networks?

Why are science writers so slow to adopt social media and so resistant to it?

How will you cope with being seen as the expert on social media in your next job, just because you are young?

Planning social media strategies

Remember the fundamental rule: it’s a tactic not a strategy

As a tactic, you should experiment to see what works. If it works, keep it up (at least until something changes). If not, abandon it (at least until something changes).

Cost of failure is low if you haven’t invested lots of time. The tech makes it easy to do without large time investments.

A social media plan should naturally derive from a communications plan. It shouldn’t take long to plan.

Collaboration

An insufficiently answered question: How can science journalists use social media for collaboration? Tools of social media allow for easier blending of

different media types Collaborative workspaces share many features of

social networks Tools for other social media can be put to collaborative

use in science writing. (e.g. Google Wave) Given the technical nature of much science writing,

many questions arise for readers. How can social media help with this?

Old media recommendations

Books:Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, 2008Jeff Howe, Crowdsourcing, 2008Lewis Hyde, The Gift, 1979Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action,

1965

Some new media recommendations

Twitter: @physicsdavid/forsciencewritingstudents

Web: www.mashable.com www.zephoria.org/thoughts ksjtracker.mit.edu www.niemanlab.org www.cjr.org/the_observatory

How do you want me to share good links/resources?

Other stuff

Some stuff from me:Secret life of social media (slides+audio):

http://bit.ly/9dip5JWhat does twitter mean for breaking news stories?

The ISS near-collision case study: http://bit.ly/bz6wEk

Some recent articles:Who’s using twitter? http://bit.ly/aLbcTfHow Freelancers are Using Social Media for Real

Results http://bit.ly/b0be4m

During this class

Who has read some form of social media in this class?

Who has updated some form of social media in this class?

Who had the urge to either read or post during the class?