丁香园AV

Isabelle C么t茅 is an 丁香园AV Professor of Marine Ecology and Conservation and an active science communicator whose prime social media platform is Twitter.

C么t茅, who has cultivated over 5,80 followers since she began tweeting in 2012, recently became curious about who her followers were.

鈥淚 wanted to know if my followers were mainly scientists or non-scientists鈥� in other words was I preaching to the choir or singing from the rooftops?鈥� she says.

C么t茅 and collaborator Emily Darling set out to find the answer by analyzing the active Twitter accounts of more than 100 ecology and evolutionary biology faculty members at 85 institutions across 11 countries.

Their methodology included categorizing followers as either 鈥渋nreach鈥� if they were academics, scientists and conservation agencies and donors; or 鈥渙utreach鈥� if they were science educators, journalists, the general public, politicians and government agencies.

C么t茅 found that scientists with fewer than 1,000 followers primarily reach other scientists. However, scientists with more than 1,000 followers have more types of followers, including those in the 鈥渙utreach鈥� category.

Twitter and other forms of social media provide scientists with a potential way to share their research with the general public and, importantly, decision- and policy-makers. C么t茅 says public pressure can be a pathway to drive change at a higher level. However, she notes that while social media is an asset, it is 鈥渘ot likely an effective replacement for more direct science-to-policy outreach that many scientists are now engaging in, such as testifying in front of special governmental committees, directly contacting decision-makers, etc.鈥�

Further, even with greater diversity and reach of followers, the authors concede that there are still no guarantees that Twitter messages will be read or understood. C么t茅 cites evidence that people selectively read what fits with their perception of the world and changing followers鈥� minds about deeply held beliefs is challenging.

鈥淲hile Twitter is emerging as a medium of choice for scientists, studies have shown that less than 40% of academic scientists use the platform鈥� says C么t茅. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 clearly a lot of room for scientists to build a social media presence and increase their scientific outreach. Our results provide scientists with clear evidence that social media can be used as a first step to disseminate scientific messages well beyond the ivory tower鈥�.

Click  to read the full study in FACETS.